The Spec-Ops Team
by BrenRome
Summary: An OC AoS fanfic. Submissions are closed for now. Formerly titled 'The Other Team.' (I own NOTHING except my OC's. This is for Fan-Purpopses only, so Please Don't Sue! Title Sucks, I know. I'll look into another one.)
1. Arthur Williams and Katie Shiela

**Hi everyone. Yes, this is another OC-based fanfic this time on one of my favorite shows from Marvel (next to Agent Carter,) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. This is an open-OC submission fic, so I'm gonna need some submissions to make this story work again. In case you are wondering, this story will start during Season 1 before the big HYDRA takeover, and then progress into Season 2 and follow from there. However, rather than it being about joining Coulson's team, this one's based around another team tasked with doing the stuff Phil wouldn't consider touching at that point in his career. As such I have created the first two OC's of this story which you will be able to read about down below in the forms of Agent Arthur Williams and incoming recruit/consultant Katie Sheila. Now, this story is also inspired by the team relationships in the show as well as a bit of Hot Fuzz and the comic book and upcoming adaptation of Mark Millar and Dave Gibbon's The Secret Service. Unlike a lot of people who watched AoS during Season 1, while I did have some problems with the relationships at first, I actually got to know these characters better and eventually realized that if we just went in guns-a-blazin at first, and kept doing it constantly 24/7, well, chances are it could've ended up in Michael Bay territory. So as such, that became the basis for the relationship between Arthur and Katie. Now another way I like to look at this is Arthur being the Grant Ward that never was. In other words, Arthur's seen plenty of action in his time, but unlike Ward, he's the one who's loyal to the REAL good guys, and not willing to betray them out of a debt (I have a great confrontation the two will have later on, and will showcase the dynamics between what they've learned since becoming part of a greater team.) Katie is the Skye of the group, but unlike Skye, she's much more mistake-prone. Her goals are sometimes higher and more unrealistic, and unlike Skye, seems to take everything as either a joke or not that big of a deal. Despite this, she wants to do good, and perhaps she might just do that by the end of the story. Oh, and this will not be a slash fanfiction if you're thinking that's what this is all about. No, I think I see their relationship similar to that of Robin and Raven on the old Teen Titans Cartoon/Anime. And yes, I used the DC word. Anyways, with that said, here is the OC profiles for these two who I created.**

SUBMISSION FORM EXAMPLES:

NAME: Arthur Williams

AGE: 25

GENDER: Male

PERSONALITY: Serious, tries to keep a cool head, but can easily be angered when something doesn't go his own way. That said, he can open up if others are willing to play nice with him.

APPEARANCE: Tall, well-fit, short cropped red hair.

HISTORY: Arthur grew up idolizing Captain America which led him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. (it's later revealed his Father served in Vietnam and died as a result while his mother was pregnant with him). He trained under the belief that if he could be like Steve Rogers, he could make the world a better place. He graduated from American InterContinental College University with a degree in Criminal Justice, Phycology Correction, and Law Enforcement. He went on to becoming a cop in New York who quickly rose to Sargent. Seeing his ability in establishing both popularity and an effectiveness in the community, S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited him as an agent and after vigorous training, Arthur moved his way up to Level 5. He was briefly considered for a Level 6 Position, but after his first time leading a team into a covert operation went array, he was placed back as a Level 5 with his confidence shattered.

Most recently, Arthur captured Katie Sheila, a young girl trying to get herself recruited into the Rising Tide. After doing his assessment, Arthur learned he was being made a Level 7…just being placed alongside a team which included Katie due to her usefulness in explosives, and her being an outsider (much to Arthur's disappointment and confusion.)

FAMILY/FRIENDS: Stan Williams (Father, Deceassed,) Veronica Williams (Mother,) Robert Edwards (Adoptive Father.)

ROLE: Combat Specialist/Team Leader.

POWERS/SPECIAL ABILITIES, IF ANY?: None.

CLEARANCE LEVEL: 7 (Formerly 5)

SKILLS: Expert in hand-to-hand combat, weapons specialist, pretty good strategist.

WEAKNESSES: Arthur is short-tempered and often tries to play things down-to-earth and by-the-book even in a world following the Battle of New York. He is easily angered when things don't go his way, tends to have doubts when planning strategically with a team like the one he has. Also tends to be a bit of a workaholic and can almost never stop being an agent even on the down-time he has.

STRENGTHS: Despite his short-temper, Arthur trusts S.H.I.E.L.D. to do the right thing. He has also willingly agreed to counselling and evaluation to work out his problems.

OTHER: Perhaps Arthur can have one of the fellow agents be the one to help him whenever he is in the field to do what's right, as a sort-of morale support.

….

NAME: Katie Sheila

AGE: 20

GENDER: female

PERSONALITY: A blundering and mislead, but good-nurtured young woman. She often makes mistakes but can take responsibility if things go wrong. Understands the importance of teamwork due to her trying and failing to support a young sister who she grew up with in an orphanage, but failed to keep her safe when she attempted to leave her adoptive parents.

APPEARANCE: Slim, athletic build. Long brown hair. Blue eyes.

HISTORY: Katie grew up in an orphanage without knowing who her parents were alongside her sister, Tracey. Nobody came for them until they were 10 Years Old. The house they ended up being brought into was horrible and their adoptive parents were even worse. Eventually, Katie had enough and decided that they would leave. Katie began experimenting with various chemicals by breaking into a school lab at night and eventually taught herself how to make explosives, while also checking out a few articles on the web about carjacking and other useful skills. Additionally, whenever their parents weren't on their case, the two would often entertain themselves by watching old action stars in DVD's their adoptive parents owned which Katie often imagined herself as the leading lady in. On the night they planned to leave, though, Tracey was caught by their adoptive parents who proceeded to beat her to death. Katie tried to save Tracey, but she forced her sister to go on without her and find real family. Heartbroken, Katie fled and evaded her adoptive parents, finding refuge in a homeless shelter.

Despite this, she still visited the orphanage (from a safe distance) and saw to her sadness that the children were being treated just as cruel as ever if not worst. In return, she became a petty thief and often acted as a sort-of female Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor that couldn't afford it. At one point, she even learned how to steal cars and hotwire them, where she would take her old friends for a fast ride for fun then run away when the cops noticed them. Eventually, one of her friends told her about The Rising Tide and how a girl they heard via the web was trying to break those in power so The Rising Tide could help her find her family. Katie was instantly inspired to go and try to get herself recruited so they could assist her in finding her own family.

Afterwards, she began setting off explosives in an attempt to try and get The Rising Tide's attention, by setting off explosions which left imprints on the wall calling out to the Rising Tide to try and recruit her. Eventually, she found the strength to take it one step further and blew up her adoptive parent's house. Unfortunately, she had attracted the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. who sent Arthur Williams in to take her in which he did.

But when she thought she was going to be killed, S.H.I.E.L.D. instead offered her a position as a consultant for a new team being brought together for cases too big for any one team to handle.

FAMILY/FRIENDS: Adoptive Parents (Arsen and Liz Ziost). Real Parents (Unknown and Missing). Tracey (Sister, Deceased)

ROLE: Consultant/Demolitions Expert.

CLEARANCE LEVEL: 6 (Technically 7, but not so much as she is merely a consultant much like how Skye was at the beginning of Season 1).

SKILLS: Expert in explosives, the "heart" of the team, she is willing to talk to people, although in some cases, people might need to talk to her a bit harder when she's in a bad mood. (There is a secret she has that even she doesn't realize, but that comes later.)

WEAKNESSES: As a person who tried to get herself recruited into the Rising Tide, Katie is prone to be cryptic and a little bit cold to those who can't play well-together. She is also a tad bit immature for her age.

STRENGTHS: Problems aside, Katie has learned how to make her own explosives, and is also the one who will remind the team that no matter what, they always stick together. She's also pretty fast and agile for a girl with her kind of history, and also knows a thing or two about stealing stuff that doesn't belong to her.

OTHER: Katie is an avid fan of various action films such as Army of Darkness, Die Hard, The Expendables, Etc.

**So there's the profiles for my two OC's. If anybody else wants to submit a character, here is the positions that are needed for the fanfic:**

**A Team Pilot**

**Team Science Experts (Bio and Engineering)**

**Or an extra agent or two to be on-hand when working the assignments.**

**Once again, the Pilot and Science Whiz's are characters I'm gonna need to get this fic rolling, but I figured I'd start it off by introducing my own OC's first and then letting you write up your own. Some things to keep in mind though, is that make sure these are NOT Mary Sue's. Even Katie and Arthur, as good as they are, have their own problems as you noticed, and both will try to progress as the story goes on, that by the end of season 1, they might be radically different from they were when they began. Also, DON'T try to make them the off-spring of any established characters or characters already established in the Marvel Cinematic U (feel free to try and connect them from character's we HAVEN'T seen in the films or shows yet, though, cause I have plans for that later.) So those are the basic rules. I'm trying something different with this fic for the first time so let's see what we can do with it. There's also a copy of the OC Forum at the bottom of this whole fic so you can use that as a reference if you wish. So now that this has all been said, here's the first chapter of the story. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so please don't sue! With that said, enjoy!**

_**Boston, Massachusetts…**_

The young girl licked her lips with excitement as she set the final charges to her explosives, attaching it to the wooden house she was in front of. She was young and had full brown hair with blue eyes that were almost sparkling as she worked her "magic."

Quickly covering it with a bush (as she had with the rest of the fuses,) she quickly went back into a dark alleyway where no one would see her. Once she was safe, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a small detonator. Looking at it cautiously, she mentally nodded to herself and pressed the button.

Instantly, the house blew up in an eruption of fire. People screamed and panicked, running around trying to figure out what was happening and who to call.

Nodding, she left and went back to her regular 'home.'

This place had originally been her home but ended up being her grave. The people who lived in that house had left her with nothing and now she was leaving them with the same thing.

"Farewell to the old and forgettable life." She said under her breath.

As she passed out the other side of the alleyway and into the busy streets with people, she accidently bumped into a man. The bump was really hard and actually sent her to the ground.

"Oh!" She said clumsily, trying to maintain her cover, "I'm so sorry!"

"No problem." The man said, helping her back up.

The girl got a good look at the man and noted he was probably a couple years older than she was. He had a bit of cropped red hair and green eyes, wearing a business suit with a bowtie. Despite his high-profile-styled clothes, he obviously seemed well built as well.

"That was quite a push!" She laughed, striking a brief conversation, "What's with you? Are you some kind of bodybuilder?"

"No." The man smiled, "I'm Arthur Williams."

"Katie." The girl introduced herself, "Katie Sheila. So what brings you to Boston, Mr. Williams?"

"Funny thing about that." Arthur replied, "It's actually you."

Katie froze.

"I'm sorry?" She asked.

"You know for someone who's trying to join a group as elusive as the Rising Tide, you sure do have a funny way of asking for it."

Katie took a few steps back as he took a few steps forward.

"You're…you're one of the Rising Tide, right?" She asked, "Cause if this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny."

"Ms. Sheila," The man said, "I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me."

With that, Katie dashed off as the man took chase to her. Katie had learned how to be fast, but this guy was quicker. Katie was suspecting he wasn't really with the Rising Tide and decided it was best to lose him and get the hell out of town.

Ducking into a crowd, she kept running figuring she'd loose the man.

What she failed to take a notice of was the fact that there was a series of nearby fences which the man spotted instantly. Realizing his best course of action, he leapt over the first fence and then the next and so on. He was moving at acrobatic speed and grace that this guy could've been up for a couple of medals at the Olympics.

At the end of the fences, Katie looked back not seeing the man following her, figuring she must've lost him, she took a brief moment to catch her breath.

She then moved forward only to crash into the man again. Before she could ask how he had followed her so quickly and without her noticing, he grabbed her arms and placed them behind her back before slapping some cuffs on there.

"Katie Sheila," The man declared, "I'm placing you under arrest for multiple crimes of destruction and vandalism of private property and for attempting to use this to gain connections with the group known as the Rising Tide."

The man dragged the girl over to the sidewalk and took out some keys and pressed a button on there. A few minutes later, a black car pulled up. Before Katie could ask who was driving it, however, she found herself knocked in the back of the head so hard that she passed out.

…

**Later,**

_**S.H.I.E.L.D. Base Designation 4201, Stamford, Connecticut…**_

After filing out the paperwork from the day, Agent Arthur Williams walked through the various cubicles to hand in the files to his head boss Mr. Simon Kirby. It was a long day as always for the Level 5 Agent, but as always, he performed to the best of his abilities. Even after a certain incident not many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents spoke of which apparently had hurt a bit of his pride, he still came back from any sort of injury or loss.

Arthur might've been a good S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but there was a reason why he hadn't been promoted to Level 6 or 7 yet. His steel-hard determination and by-the-books-attitude (even in a world where "alien" was used more commonly now,) made him not very friendly, and as a result, didn't have many people he could talk to or hang out with. Not that it would make a difference.

Whenever he was NOT on a mission, Arthur William's time was spent doing his own 'extracurricular activities around Base Designation 4201. These included hitting the gym to keep in strength, fencing and judo to keep his skills honed, playing chess to keep his mind ready for improvising and stargazing scenarios, and riding bikes in the track where most agents could train.

Despite this, Arthur didn't measure up to the legendary agents such as Steve Rogers or Natasha Romanoff, but he was the closest a normal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent could get to that level, so most people assumed it was only a matter of time before he got a promotion.

Finally reaching the office, Arthur opened the doors and sat down before Agent Simon Kirby, the head of the base. After handing him the files and watching Kirby look and scribble his own notes, the Head of Base Designation 4201 looked at Arthur seriously. Arthur sat cool and collected as he always did, but noted there was a sort of twinge in Kirby's eyes. A hint of sadness, perhaps? Regret?

"Agent Williams." Kirby spoke, "You have been a Level 5 Agent for how many years now?"

"Three." Arthur answered honestly.

"And you live here, yes?"

"I prefer to think that my home is with S.H.I.E.L.D. where I can help people as soon as possible." Arthur responded.

Kirby nodded.

"I see." He said, "In your profile, you mentioned your reason for joining S.H.I.E.L.D. was to make a difference in the world and to help those who needed it the most. That is something that very few S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents are usually driven by."

He cleared his throat before speaking.

"Therefore," Kirby continued, "We're making you Level 7."

"I see." Williams nodded. He felt pride for reaching the goal he had set when he first joined S.H.I.E.L.D. However, his pride suddenly faded when he heard the next words out of the base leader's mouth.

"As part of a special unit team."

Arthur's face suddenly dropped as he stared blankly and confused at Kirby.

"I'm…sorry sir?" He questioned.

"We're putting together a special unit team and your name was at the top of the list for potential recruitments." Kirby explained.

"But I…" Arthur protested, "I specifically asked before the…incident…that if I ever was to be promoted to a Level 7 or even a Level 6, it would be as a single agent."

"Well," Kirby shrugged, "People don't always get what they want in life."

"So there's not another Level 7 or 6 Promotion I can take elsewhere?" Arthur asked.

"No." Kirby laughed.

"Can I not just remain here as a Level 5?" Arthur questioned.

"No." Kirby responded.

"Do I have any choice in the matter?" Arthur begged.

"No." Kirby said sternly.

"I'd like to speak to the person responsible for the promotion." Arthur demanded, putting his serious face back on.

"He can't make it." A familiar voice said, "But I'm the next best thing, so I'll say it for him."

Arthur spun around to see a face he had encountered on some rare occasions, but everyone knew who she was. She was a woman around 31 with long brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jumpsuit Uniform.

"Agent Hill." Arthur stated, standing up to give a salute, despite his anger. He was still a by-the-books S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, so he still had to show respect for those officers above him.

He sat down as Hill pulled up a chair to sit next to Kirby.

"Director Fury asked you be placed here and for good reason." Hill said seriously, "Before you ask why, I'll cut right to the chase. The fact is that you've been making all the other agents here look like a bunch of college fraternity students including the Level 6's and occasional Level 7's who stop by here."

Arthur let the words sink into his head. He was supposed to be the best! This was the reason?!

"But Romanoff and Barton always show off." Arthur stated.

"That they do." Hill admitted, "But the fact remains is that they are higher-up than you and are both affiliated with the Avengers meaning they sometimes need to look good for the public whenever there's an assignment out on the streets that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to assess. You need to learn how to step back and give other people room to work."

"So you're making me disappear then?" Arthur asked.

"Not at all." Hill stated, defensively, "We're just letting other's get a shot at being the best agent here without having to worry about topping the perfect agent in this base. Like I said, you'll be put with other people and we already found you a protégé for the team."

Arthur suddenly looked at her confused.

"A...protégé?" Arthur asked confused.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door from outside.

"Uh…Miss Hill?" A familiar voice asked, "Can I come in now?"

"Of course, Ms. Sheila." Hill called out.

Sure enough to Arthur's dismay, the door opened up revealing Katie Sheila now adorned in a black S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jumpsuit. She also wore two holsters along her legs with the standard issue stun guns for new recruits, and a belt containing pouches with more standard new recruit gear. This was all topped off by a pair of aviator shades worn over her face.

"Nice entrance," Hill said casually, unaware of the jaw-dropped Agent Williams, "But you don't need the glasses. This isn't an action movie after all, as I'm sure that Agent Williams here will teach you."

"Whatever." Katie replied, putting the shades in one of the pouches.

Almost imminently, Arthur leaped forward and took the shades out of the pouch before Katie could close it. He then threw the glasses to the ground down hard. He moved at such speed that Katie was unable to complain before he had broken her shades.

"Well great, Super-Spy." She groaned, "You just destroyed the best pair of glasses I ever owned."

"First off." Arthur declared, pointing a finger into her neck, "DON'T. CALL. ME. 'SUPER-SPY.'"

He turned to Hill.

"Second," He asked her, "With all due respect Commander Hill, what the hell makes her the perfect protégé for me?!"

"Because she's good with explosives, making her the perfect demolitions woman for the team." Hill answered, "Add to the fact that she knows ways to make a presence known and she's the ideal recruitment for this team. With the proper training from the right agent of course to make sure she doesn't give away the teams involvement constantly."

"This is completely absurd." Arthur said.

"This coming from the guy who sprinted and leaped across a dozen fences to capture little old me?" Katie asked sarcastically.

Arthur groaned as Hill smiled.

"You'll meet your team soon." She said, handing them both folders, "In the meantime, I'll leave you two to review each other's profiles and get to know each other better."

_**To be continued…**_

**So there you go. Feel free to drop me some OC submissions in the reviews, or just leave a review in general if you wish. I'll post the next chapter when I find a good OC to use for this story. You can use the profile form down bellow to make your OC Profile if you wish. So that's all for now. Take care until then. Oh, and no flames, please. Also, again, I own nothing and this is for FAN-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! Take care!**

NAME:

AGE:

GENDER:

PERSONALITY:

APPEARANCE:

HISTORY:

FAMILY/FRIENDS:

ROLE:

CLEARANCE LEVEL:

SKILLS:

WEAKNESSES:

STRENGTHS:

OTHER:


	2. Jessica Smith

**Hi everyone! Welcome to Chapter 2 of The Other Team! Today, we have our first OC; Jessica Smith who will serve as the pilot for this series. She was created by SweetPeaKayla. Before we begin, though, I need to make this clear. I was given two more submissions (one for the biologist and the other for an extra field agent,) by two guests named AwesomeGirl and AOSISMYLIFE. If the two of you are reading this, I like your ideas, but I need to contact you as soon as possible to discuss some things for the characters that might need to be changed for them to work. So if you two are seeing this, please PM me as soon as possible so I can get in touch about the changes needed. If there are any others who have ideas for the biologist or any other of the roles (Engineering Tech Wizard/extra agent) please send them to me in a review or a PM. So with that said, hope you all enjoy! Oh, and I own nothing but my OC's. Jessica Smith was created by SweetPeaKayla. Everything else is not mine. This is for FAN-Purpopses only, so PLEASE DON'T SUE! With that said, enjoy!**

_**Egypt…**_

Since the fall of A.I.M. and their lead scientist Dr. Aldrich Killian, the group had been working in secret, plotting to carry on the name of their late genius under the guidance of a scientist who believed himself to be destined for greatness.

George Tarleton was a noted follower of Killian's work and was even now improving upon the former A.I.M. mastermind's extremis serum. Tarleton had successfully managed to infuse the serum into microscopic-like robots which could be injected into the bloodstream and give people new abilities without the fear of having the serum killing them in the end. Now, there was a new organization arising from the days following the end of HYDRA and the Second World War. They were a group of terrorists sanctioned here in the Middle East known as The Zodiac. Tarleton's plan was simple; sell a sample of the nanobots prototype to The Zodiac in secret (hence the meeting here under the false pretense of a visit to a business meeting held abroad to avoid any more protestors from the Killian incident,) and then give them just enough power to convince the United States Government that they could be trusted again to give America the needs to fight back without the help of The Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D.

As Tarleton shook the hand of the businessman and was ready to make the exchange, something extraordinary happened. Without warning, a series of rapid bullets flew out from thin air filling the other members and guards with lead. Tarleton could only look horrified as he was the last man standing, the briefcase still clutched in his hand.

Then from nowhere a voice was heard.

"Attention Mr. Tarleton," A young-sounding female-like voice called, "You have been recorded as meeting with the terrorist team known as Zodiac. You have nowhere else to run and these bullets we have hit your friends with have built-in healing nanobots, so we beat you to the punch. You have one of two options. You can either come quietly, or we can shoot you over and over as long as we like as your body painfully heals itself. Put the case down and raise your hands up if you surrender."

Tarleton sighed and raised his hands. Then, from the platform overlooking the town in front of him, a ramp lowered down and a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents poured out, cuffing the shot men who were groaning indicating that perhaps the person arresting him wasn't bluffing.

Then, one lone woman stepped out of the platform. She was around 28 Years Old, but had a very slim body and short jet red hair. However, this was not the legendary Black Widow as she seemed a few inches taller and her eyes were blue instead of green.

She walked up to the man and cuffed him, taking the suitcase with her, as he team followed taking the other members with them. The woman mentally sighed to herself. She knew this was going to be a long day now and she'd have to endure much worse soon enough.

….

_**Later, The Hub…**_

"Jessica Smith." Agent Hand said, nonchalantly as the young agent entered the office of Victora Hand, "Please, have a seat."

Jessica Smith was someone who didn't tend to trust that many people. She had been bullied for most of her childhood leading up until High School, and although she told her mother and got help, she had a hard time trusting people there afterwards. Despite her issues with trust, Jessica was still a great Level 6 Agent, and before then had been taken hostage by a terrorist cell in Al-Qaeda when she was working with the US Army. She joined after college and while she enjoyed some good missions, they all came to an end eventually. Her entire team had been captured and slowly killed one by one for information. Perhaps it was because of Jessica's trust issues, or perhaps it was because she was loyal to her home country but for whatever reason, when Jessica was the last soldier standing and the time came for her torture to gain information from her, she refused defiantly. The terrorists began to mock her as they had with the others, showing they had been funded with Stark Weaponry given to them by Raza of the Ten Rings Terror Organization. They had used most of the weaponry to kill Jessica's team, but they saved some to use on her recording a final video demanding the ultimatum of a million US Dollars in exchange for Jessica's life.

The days went by when she would remained chained, slapped around, and water boarded, but Jessica never broke. Eventually it all paid off when a S.H.I.E.L.D. team investigating the disappearance of Tony Stark who was then unknown to have been Iron Man, heard about her team's capture and was tasked with saving any survivors while retrieving the weapons. The terrorists were defeated and Jessica was freed, gladly helping to take out the leader responsible for her days in hell by snapping his neck.

Soon afterwards, she quit the army and joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to better herself. She had developed a life for herself here and felt like she had been doing more here than she had when she was in the US Military. There were still those problems with trust and she figured it was only a matter of time before someone spoke to her about that.

"You file is definitely impressive." Hand pointed out, "For someone like me, it's rare that I ever get impressed. In the years you've been with us, you've developed quite a set of skills. You've become a Pilot/Combat Specialist almost rivaling that of Melinda May herself. Give you a few years and some off-time from watching those romantic comedies of yours, and you might be equal to her level if not better."

She looked at the 28-Year Old Agent and folded her hands on the table.

"So on that note," She said, "Effective imminently, you're being transferred to a team."

Jessica's heart sank. She knew this was going to happen, but she had hoped someone more authorative like Hill or maybe even Fury would tell her this. Hell, she'd probably settle for Agent Coulson who had apparently resurfaced recently due to unknown circumstances except for the fact that when the Asgardian menace known as Loki stabbed him, the self-proclaimed God had missed Coulson's vital areas by a few inches, allowing him to recover and continue working in secret.

"Ms. Hand…" Jessica started to beg.

"Call me Director Hand or Agent Hand, Ms. Smith." Victoria said, cutting her off, "Only my friends get to call me Ms. Hand or Victoria if they're lucky. But you have a bit of an advantage here as you'll be piloting this team's plane on missions and working under the orders of someone as sociable as you are; Agent Williams."

Jessica groaned. Agent Williams was the last person she'd want to work with, let alone be ordered around by. He was a walking one-man army and the living embodiment of a workaholic. He was fast, he was serious, and he took all matters with the upmost importance. At least Jessica watched Romantic Comedies in her spare time as something to keep her mind off things when not on-duty. If Williams had a hobby, it was being too serious. She heard a story one time where he had actually been set-up on a date by the higher-ups to attend a bar with a fellow agent to try and get some down time. Instead, he ended up kicking everybody who was under the legal drinking age out until only he, his date, the few who were legally old enough to drink, and the owners and waiters remained.

But there was no point arguing with Hand. If she was going to challenge Hand, it would be the equivalent of fighting against Romanoff or Rogers and they would end up wiping the floor with her.

"Don't worry." Hand smiled, "I'm sure you'll do just fine taking orders from him."

….

_**Later, at a remote S.H.I.E.L.D. Hangar…**_

Jessica took deep breaths as she exited the plane, putting her bag of supplies on her back. She made sure to pack all of what she needed and hoped that one day S.H.I.E.L.D. would be able to invent some kind of helper-bot to handle these sort of things. As she exited the plane, she felt the warm summer sun hit her body as she made her way into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Airstrip. This was where S.H.I.E.L.D. kept all their big planes around for either construction or for test flights.

"Agent Smith I presume?"

Jessica froze and looked at the direction the voice had come from. Standing before her was none other than the one-eyed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself, Nick Fury. Jessica felt her knees almost buckle and was asking herself why Fury had gone down to see her.

"Director Fury." She said, standing upstraight.

"At ease, Agent." Fury smiled, "I'm only here to escort you to your team's new home."

"Really, sir?" She asked, "I mean…uh…isn't there some kind of world crisis that needs to be solved."

"Nah." Fury replied, as he motioned for her to follow him, "The only world crisis happening now after the Extremis incident was finding a way to convince The World Security Council and Alexander Pierce to give us extra money. Both for restoring Coulson's plane that he damaged after his second mission, and for this little project that you'll be flying."

They stopped and Jessica stood in front of her to see what Fury was referring to. She gasped in amazement. It looked like the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III that Coulson's team used, but it was much longer almost like it was designed for Air Force One and for Fury's own private plane combinded together.

"This is the Spec-Ops-Plane." Fury told her, "Part of our prototypes for the new Helicarriers that'll be used for Project Insight. Let me give you the tour."

….

_**Later…**_

The tour had been astounding. In addition to the regular standard rooms for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team planes such as the labs, the meeting room, and the garage, they also contained some turrets that agents would use manually and looked like something straight out of the Millennium Falcon. Not to mention there was also the agent sleeping quarters which looked much more comfier than the other S.H.I.E.L.D. beds than the ones that were usually given on normal planes.

"Don't let it get destroyed and build a fish tank, okay?" Fury asked, "Or I might have to take it away from you."

"Sir?" Jessica asked, "Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be telling Arthur this instead?"

Fury gave her a grim look, and Jessica suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.

"I'm gonna speak to you about this now," Fury said, "I figured you'd have the right to know this. What I'm about to tell you, can't be told to anyone else. Teammates, family, anyone. Understood?"

Jessica nodded her head.

"I'm concerned something rotten is going down in S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What?!" Jessica asked, shocked, "What do you mean?!"

"I don't know." Fury admitted calmly, "It's too early to tell. But Pierce's enthusiasim and pushing for Project: Insight just rubs me the wrong way. It's probably just a guess, but I need to make sure I have agents I can trust. You, Jessica Smith, are one of the few agents I feel can hold this secret. Can I count on you for this?"

Jessica thought hard about this. Eventually, she made her choice and nodded her head.

"Yes." She said.

"Alright." Fury stated, bringing her to a closet and opening the door before closing it. "Here's how you contact me."

He pressed her hand against a blank wall. Suddenly, there was a light beeping noise and the wall next to her opened up, revealing a phone.

"This is a private and secure line." He stated, "Call me ONLY if you feel like anything's going fishy on the ship and we'll coordinate back and forth."

"You can count on me, sir." Jessica stated.

"Good." He said, getting ready to leave, "Your other teammates will arrive soon and then Williams will arrive with his first mission."

As they went towards the ramp that served as the entrance/exit for the ship, Fury paused for a moment.

"Oh," He added, "And before I forget; I brought on a protégé for Arthur. She's an outcast without any training, but she's got a good soul. I can tell she'll be a valuable asset for you and the others. Just go easy on her emotionally, okay? Girl never had parents, so make sure you try and feel right at home, kay?"

Jessica nodded and with that, Fury left her there to gather her thoughts.

…

_**Later…**_

Jessica stood there, waiting for the others to arrive. She thought hard about what Fury said.

"_Girl never had parents, so make sure you try and feel right at home, kay?"_

Jessica, like a good number of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents had that case of being someone who grew up with half of a family to support her. In some cases, some agents didn't have family at all, but Jessica was one of those rare cases. She grew up with her mother after her father left before she was born. It was never explained why, or even who her father was outside of his name; Nicholas Smith. She overheard that name one night when she was young and got out of bed to use the bathroom upstairs in her home. She overheard her mother screaming at someone named 'Nicholas Smith,' before hanging up and breaking down crying with her arms wrapped around her legs as she buried her face in there.

The mystery of her father's absence and anything else about him outside of his name was a mystery that haunted Jessica to this day alongside her own past experiences with being a prisoner.

Still, if Fury vouched for the girl, she promised she would be firm but kind to her. After all, Jessica had a similar experience and felt nobody should have to go through life without a family as this new recruit did. Otherwise, she would follow Arthur William's orders, while simultaneously keeping a watchful eye on anybody and only tell Fury if she felt something was wrong.

Finally, she saw a black van arrive. This was the sign that she was ready to meet the new recruits.

_Alright._ She said to herself, _Let's see who else is joining us._

**Well, there we go. Hope you enjoyed! Special thanks to SweetPeaKayla for her OC. Remember, AwesomeGirl, AOSISMYLIFE, please PM me to get in contact with me about your OC's. If not, I will select someone else's ideas. Thank you. And please, if you review, no flames!**


	3. Quick Announcement

Hi everyone. Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day and is (at this time,) having a great President's Day. Anyways, I have a quick update for 'The Other Team.' I have received enough submissions that I feel like I can get this show on the road now. So let me announce who else besides SweetPeaKayla (Jessica Smith) has made it into the fanfic:

_**Bruce John Gordon (Engineer) created by NN010**_

_**Faye Anne Carter (Extra Recruit Field Agent) created by AOSISMYLIFE**_

_**Sabrina Marie Washionton (Biologist) created by AwsomeGirl**_

Congratulations to you all. Don't worry. If you didn't have a chance to submit a character, I'm gonna try and do a sequel fanfic where I'll leave suggestions open again.

Also as a message to AwesomeGirl, I spoke with AOSISMYLIFE and NN010 and AOSISMYLIFE and they allowed me to tweak their characters around a little since there is stuff in this story that contrasts with them, so I just need to change one thing with your character (with your permission obviously), and then we should be set to go.

Anyways, drop me a line in the reviews as to whether I have permission to change one small thing or not. If it's okay, then I'll try to get chapter 3 up as soon as I can, and if not I'll open submissions again for another biologist.

Anyways, enjoy President's Day.

Regards,

BrenRome

PS: Last Friday I saw the premiere of Kingsman: The Secret Service. Go check it out. It's an awesome movie that pays tribute to the old school James Bond and is based on a comic written by Mark Millar (Kick-***) and drawn by Dave Gibbons (Watchmen.) It blew me away and despite one problem I had with it, is definitely an awesome movie that did not disappoint.


	4. Bruce G, Faye C, and Sabrina W

**Hi again. Sorry I'm late on getting this up, but I was obviously awaiting permission from one of the authors and I also decided to add in another introduction so we could get the last remaining approved OC Agents out of the way and FINALLY begin the first mission next chapter. That and I'm obviously busy with classes and what-not. Congratulations to those OC's that were accepted, and i****f you are someone who didn't get a chance to submit an OC, and feel that you want to, don't worry, I have a sequel planned, so I might take more submissions for that story when I get around to it.**** Anyway, rounding out the last few characters are **_Bruce John Gordon (Engineer) created by NN010, Faye Anne Carter (Extra Recruit Field Agent) created by AOSISMYLIFE, and Sabrina Marie Washionton (Biologist) created by AwsomeGirl. _**Thank you all for joining me on this new little OC Fanfic, and I hope you will enjoy these stories as much as I did writing them. So with that said, here's the introduction to these last few agents. Enjoy. As always I own NOTHING but my OC's. The other OC's are created by the previous author's I mentioned and Jessica Smith is created by SweetPeaKayla. Everything else is Marvel. This fanfic is for FAN-Purposes ONLY, so please don't sue! Other than that, enjoy!**

_**S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, California…**_

S.H.I.E.L.D. always expected the best out of their agents with very few complaints unless they were noteworthy and had serious concerns that were worth looking into.

Still, that didn't mean these agents were perfect, especially when they were still within the academy.

This was the case with a young girl of 18 Years old who was twiddling her thumbs as she worked on this test given before her. She had long dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes, with a scar running up her upper right arm.

Sabrina Marie Washionton was almost sweating bullets as she continuously wrote down everything she could on her exam. She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who sometimes liked to test herself even when she knew she had anxiety problems when working under pressure as she was now.

Still, Sabrina was a biochemist wizard and was great with these sort of things. She finished the work and handed her paper over to the instructor who looked it over.

"Very impressive, Ms. Washionton." The instructor said, "You aced the test again."

Sabrina smiled. She liked hearing how much she was appreciated. It was defiantly a nice change of pace from her past life.

You see, outside of telling those in charge as per-required for being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sabrina had a rather tragic past that she didn't often talk to other students about, and tried to keep hidden as best as possible.

Her mother and father had raised her and her older brother together, but rarely had any family time to spend with each other, leaving for Sabrina to spend most of her time being looked after by her older brother. One lone night, her parents were out late and whilst the brother and sister slept, they were awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of glass breaking. Meeting on the top of the stairs, her older brother asked her to wait there as he checked downstairs.

Then she heard a loud gunshot and ignored her promise to stay up there, no matter what happened.

That's when she found her older brother collapsed on the floor with a pool of blood trailing from his stomach. In front of him were some looters who were trying their best to steal all of their belongings. In a fit of rage, Sabrina attacked the looters, subduing them quickly despite her young age and only using a knife that her brother had in his dead hands. That's how she got both her physical and emotional scars.

Because of this, Sabrina's parents sent her away, leaving their daughter to promise herself that she would do something worthwhile in her life. Hence joining S.H.I.E.L.D. She didn't take any courses in combat, though. She promised herself after the traumatic experience of stabbing someone she would never again use a weapon. Instead, she decided that she would study to be a biochemist for S.H.I.E.L.D.

To her surprise, she had excelled quickly already making it to Level 5, so she felt it was only a matter of time before she was called out of the academy and into the field. After all, it had happened recently with two star students here; Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz.

As she was exiting the room, she heard a voice on the intercoms.

"May I have your attention please?" The voice asked, "Will the following students Sabrina Washionton, and Bruce Gordon, along with Agent Faye Anne Carter please attend the office of Anne Weaver?"

Sabrina froze. Could it be happening? Her heart was both happy and fearful of what was yet to come next, but regardless, she hurried along the halls to the office of Anne Weaver, the head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Then she remembered that someone else would be joining her as well. What was his name? Bruce Gordon? She didn't know much about the guy as she was often the wallflower of the school and a shy one at best, but she figured she would get to know him sooner.

This other agent, though? Faye Anne Carter? She would have to keep constantly reminding herself not to call this agent by the nickname she earned by joining S.H.I.E.L.D.

….

_**Earlier, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Boiler Room…**_

What many of the staff didn't know (if they had, they probably would have this place shut down imminently,) was that some time ago, a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents built themselves their own secret room inside the boiler room of the academy. This eventually became the ideal spot for a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent to go to if they wanted to relax and get away from the troubles of the world or from classes.

Currently, the students were having their own private gaming party and were watching two players go head-to-head on a borrowed X-Box 360 in Call of Duty.

Player two was a short young man with red hair and blue eyes, wearing a white t-shirt and black pants.

Player one was a not-too skinny or buff man with black hair, and brown eyes, who looked at his game as if his life depended on it.

As his in-game character turned the corner, he came across Player Two's Avatar, and fired, taking him down. The room, which had all been focused on this match burst into applause as the game announced Player One had emerged victorious. Another student standing nearby a chalkboard with tally's on there, chalked one more point to the name Bruce John Gordon, which gave him 20 points over Alan Typch's 5 point score, making Bruce the winner of the tournament.

Bruce felt really happy, but at the same time felt he should be getting back to class soon. Not that he wasn't a great student or anything. Hell, he had two PhD's in Engineering before he began work at S.H.I.E.L.D. and in addition to having the brains to know how to make any gadget blueprint for S.H.I.E.L.D. in his sleep, he was also using some of his spare time to come up with a few gadget ideas of his own.

For most of his life, Bruce grew up wanting to become a scientist. One night, he and his parents were held hostage by a group calling themselves The Tyrants. Soon afterwards, Bruce met agent Nick Jones of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jones must've seen something of talent inside Bruce because they soon became good friends until Nick offered Bruce a chance to join S.H.I.E.L.D. which he gladly accepted.

Sadly, Bruce seemed to be the only friend that Nick had in this place. Not that Bruce wasn't that good a guy, when you got to know him, he was just often very shy and didn't know how to socialize with people outside of the little game tournament get-togethers here.

Just as he was thanking people who were congratulating him, there was an announcement over the intercoms that the agents had secretly installed in case of a meeting that came up unexpectly.

"May I have your attention please?" The voice asked, "Will the following students Sabrina Washionton, and Bruce Gordon, along with Agent Faye Anne Carter please attend the office of Anne Weaver?"

Everyone looked at Bruce who just shrugged and walked away. Nobody said anything. Was it possible that they found out about the secret meeting rooms? No. Bruce heard clearly that another person, Sabrina Washionton, was also called in and he had no actual interaction with her, whatsoever.

As Bruce exited the secret hangout, he kept constantly reminding himself that Faye Anne Carter was going to be there, and that meant there was going to be some serious business for S.H.I.E.L.D. to bring in one of the many agents with a huge reputation here at the academy.

….

_**Earlier, outside the Debriefing Room…**_

The doors opened and a young woman exited from the room. She was dressed in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Jacket, a black T-Shirt, and black pants and shoes. She ran her hand back behind her curly brown hair, and exhaled deeply.

"Need a smoke?" A nearby voice asked.

The young agent turned to see Agent John Garrett standing there, with a lit cigarette already in his mouth, his face kept in that usual cocky grin.

"You know it's bad for your health." Agent Faye Anne Carter said, with no humor in her voice.

"Ah, c'mon, Faye." Garrett said, acting as if they were old friends, "You know I've endured worse than just some cancer to my lungs over the years."

"What are you even doing here, Garrett?"

"Can't a guy stop by the academy every now and then?" He asked, "Besides, I have some business that I need take care of take care of here, Agent C."

Faye was about to ask what he meant by calling her 'Agent C,' but stopped when she heard an announcement over the intercoms.

"May I have your attention please?" The voice asked, "Will the following students Sabrina Washionton, and Bruce Gordon, along with Agent Faye Anne Carter please attend the office of Anne Weaver?"

Garett looked at her surprised as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well, well…" Garrett said, "It looks like you're needed."

Faye took one last look at him and went off to the offices of Anne Weaver. Faye worked as a tutor to some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents here, and so she often brought them out on their first assignments as an escort. She was deadly and could take down people without even batting an eye. She was already Level 7 and yet despite having all these good things going for her, what bothered her most was what the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents had nicknamed her.

'Agent Carter.' Obviously after one of the original S.H.I.E.L.D. founders (when it was called the SSR,) and the former lover of Captain America during the days of WWII, Agent Peggy Carter. Not that there was anything wrong with being compared to someone like Peggy Carter, but what Faye didn't like about it was the fact that she was constantly reminded of it in a joking way. It would always be something like 'Agent Carter, time to suit up.' Others it would be when she had a rare coffee break and it would be 'Agent Carter. How's the coffee?'

People tended to forget that Faye had a pretty rough childhood.

Faye grew up with no parents, and as a result, she had constantly moved from orphanage to orphanage until one day, she decided she wanted to do something with her life. She wanted to do something where she could help others. So she trained herself originally to be a vigilante, but around the time of her 14th Birthday, she saw a recruitment ad for a special (unnamed) organization, and decided to join. Arriving late that night, she was ambushed by some thugs but with the training she learned, managed to dispatch of them all easily. As it turned out, this was a test and she was met with Director Fury who gave her the chance to become an agent here. Thus, she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. at age 14.

She knew that there were those in S.H.I.E.L.D. who had nicknames, but sometimes, being compared to an agent who rose above the challenges faced in her time period, and who gave everything to ensure that the future of S.H.I.E.L.D. would endure didn't fill Faye with hope, as much as a reminder that Peggy Carter still had found things to live for in a life outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. even after Steve Rogers sacrificed himself by crashing a HYDRA Plane into the water to prevent bombs from being dropped over America.

Faye did not have anybody she could look to, and instead did what she did for the work only taking comfort that somebody might be sleeping safer because of S.H.I.E.L.D.

….

_**Later, The Office of Anne Weaver…**_

Bruce opened the door to see Ms. Weaver already sitting at her desk, looking over some paperwork. He also noticed there were two chairs and seated in one was a young woman around 18, with long dirty blonde hair.

Ms. Weaver looked up from her work, finally noticing Bruce there.

"Ah." She declared, "Mr. Gordon. Please, have a seat."

He sat down next to the girl.

"Mr. Gordon," She introduced, "Ms. Sabrina Washionton. Ms. Washionton, Mr. Bruce Gordon."

The two shook hands.

"Now," Ms. Weaver said, "We're still waiting on one more agent…"

Before she could ask, the doors opened and in entered Agent Faye Anne Carter.

"Ah," The head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy declared, "Good. Agent Faye Anne Carter. We were wondering where you were. This is Mr. Bruce Gordon and Ms. Sabrina Washionton."

Faye just nodded, as Ms. Weaver looked at them all.

"Okay," She said, "So now that we're all here, we can discuss a notice I've just received."

"What's the notice about?" Faye asked.

"It's a request form from Director Fury." Weaver told them, "He said that he's putting together a new S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and he wanted the three of you onboard."

Bruce and Sabrina just looked in shock. Faye was surprised too, but managed to hide it internally.

"There's more to it than that." Faye pointed out, "There has to be."

"Way to kill the mood." Bruce murmured to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Well, Faye is correct." Ms. Weaver nodded, "Director Fury said this team is being put together as one which will be tackling the cases too risky for even Agent Coulson and his team to handle. As a result, your new supervising officer will be Agent Arthur Williams."

"Oh Christ." Faye swore.

"I'm sorry." Sabrina asked, "Did you say Arthur Williams? As in the Arthur Williams who does everything by the book?"

"That is correct, Ms. Washionton." The head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy nodded, "In fact, it's the reason why Faye is onboard."

Faye looked at her surprised.

"Director Fury is fully-aware of Arthur's…attitude problems, and he requested you be put onboard with him to try and keep his head focused, and to appeal to him as he's also been assigned a protégé who you will meet with when you arrive at your new base of operations later today."

"I can't stand the guy." Faye said.

"Why not?" Bruce asked, "If you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Faye said, bluntly.

Bruce kept quiet as Weaver sighed.

"I'm afraid that Director Fury already put all of you down though." Weaver said, "We'll certainly miss having you around, Faye. You've been such a good help to us. But this presents you with a new opportunity as it does with Mr. Gordon and Ms. Washionton here. Isn't this part of the reason you joined to begin with, after all?"

Faye sighed.

"All right." She announced, "I'll get my stuff and we'll set out."

"I suggest you two do the same." Weaver told the two other agents, "Your ride to the base will be here within three hours. Dismissed."

….

_**Later…**_

Bruce was probably the only one happy to be riding with Agent Nick Jones again. Bruce was riding shotgun to him, his toolkits for engineering, (along with his own personal belongings) both on the floor and on his lap. Faye and Sabrina rode in the backseat of Jones's S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued Acura MDX complete with hover-propulsion systems. Like Bruce, Sabrina had packed a lot of her tools and belongings as well, and had to put a lot of the stuff on the ground, in the middle seat between her and Faye, and on her lap. Faye only packed one bag with clothes, and all the weapons and gadgets she would need.

After Jones had touched down following the confirmation codes needed to enter, the group opened the door and saw there was somebody already there waiting for them. It was a woman around 28 Years Old, but had a very slim body and short jet red hair, standing in front of a giant plane.

"Hello." Jones introduced, "I'm agent Nick Jones, and this is Agents Sabrina Washionton, Bruce Gordon, and Agent Faye Anne Carter."

"Pleased to meet you." The woman smiled, "My name is Jessica Smith, I'll be the team's pilot. Let me help you with those."

"Thanks." Sabrina said, as they all began to bring their belongings onboard.

….

_**Later…**_

"Well, that's everything." Nick said, shaking everyone's hand, "Sorry I can't be on with you guys, but I can bet you're going to have a great time. Anyways, I'm off for another mission. Nice seeing you again, Bruce."

"Likewise." Bruce said, shaking Nick's hand.

Nick walked back to his car, and drove off.

"And now the calm before the storm." Faye said.

"You don't like him either." Jessica pointed out.

"Honestly. Does anyone?" Faye asked, "He's worse than Hand. At least she has the decency to mix things up with the way she works every now and then, but Arthur Williams is just straight by-the-books."

"I don't know." Sabrinia shrugged, "He might be a bit too serious, but if Director Fury put you in charge of making sure he knows what he's doing, there might be hope for you yet."

"Doubt it." Jessica said bluntly, "You hear the story of what happened the last time Williams was practically gift-wrapped a date all for himself? They went to a bar and he ended up kicking out everyone there who wasn't of legal age to drink."

"It'd still be worth a try I think." Bruce pointed out.

Faye sighed as she noticed a black car pulling up to the ramp.

"Regardless," She said, as the car parked and the engines turned off, "I have to at least try my best. We all do now. Cause it looks like our new 'Team Leader' is here and if these cases are bigger than any other team can handle as Weaver said they were, we're going to need to watch each other's backs."

**So there you go. All the OC's have been introduced. So next chapter we'll have our first meeting between all the team members here and their first mission which will involve exploring an underrated Marvel Character from their second ever licensed series after their success with the first **_**Star Wars**_** comics (PS: if you haven't been reading the new Star Wars comics yet, I strongly recommend that you do. It's the only thing Marvel's working on now that worth checking out, especially since it's not as easy to screw the franchise over any further since May 19****th****, 1999,) whose series outlasted the product Marvel was promoting, and despite no longer owning the rights to the product, can still have effects felt in the Marvel Universe to this day.**

**But what else will the agents be encountering, you ask? Well, there'll be things such as a certain kind of 'Wrecking Gang,' a titanic woman, a meeting with Agent Coulson and his team, and other cases all leading to the return of a certain threat from the past with a new twist; a secret connected to Arthur that threatens to destroy not only him and his team, but possibly a majority of the world's population as well. So thank you again for submitting your OC's, and I'll join you here next time. As always, reviews are appreciated, and again, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! Oh, and no flames, please!**


	5. First Mission

**Hi everyone. So here it is. The first team mission together. Like I said last time, this first mission chapter will explore a famous Marvel series that was their second licensed comic book following their success with the original Star Wars comics. So read on to find out who it is. Also, just as a warning, there are two scenes with swearing towards the end here, and one VERY disturbing scene for the epilogue for those of you who might be a bit squeamish. However, I toned these down as best I could, so I think it's safe to say that these pass as being a 'T' rating, but it might be a bit too much for younger eyes, so just as a heads up. I do not try and make disturbing stuff like some writers will try to do. I just try and make an interesting story. As always, I own nothing but my OC's. You can check the previous chapters for the rest of the OC's created in here by my fellow fanfiction authors, and everything else is owned by Marvel. This is for FAN-purpopses only, so PLEASE don't sue! Other than that, enjoy!**

_**Arthur William's S.H.I.E.L.D. Transport…**_

"So let's see…" Katie said, looking over the files, as she sat next to Arthur as he drove the two of them to the S.H.I.E.L.D. hangar where they would meet the team and board their new mobile base, "Have you ever fired two guns while leaping through the air?"

"No." Arthur said bluntly.

"How about one gun while jumping through the air?"

"No."

"Ever been stabbed?"

"Yes." Arthur said, his annoyance at Katie's constant questioning beginning to boil over, "Four times actually."

She opened her mouth to speak but was quickly silenced.

"And before you ask," Arthur said, "It was the most painful experience of my life and it happened on four different occasions, each of them having nothing to do with any deluded fantasy that you were thinking of involving some multimillionaire megalomaniac bent on either ruling or taking over the world."

"I was just going to ask if you ever disabled a satellite whilst fighting terrorists in space." Katie asked.

"Christ." Arthur swore, as he pulled into the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, showing the guards his ID as they let him in, "What the hell do you think happens in S.H.I.E.L.D. what do they have that makes you want to join up."

"For one thing," Katie said, "It's a very personal reason that I'd rather not say now…"

"Then I hope you actually find the guts to say it if it's anything bad." Arthur interrupted.

Kate shot a glare at him before looking back in front of her.

"Second," She pointed out, "I thought it'd be something more worthwhile. Like all these old action movies I grew up watching. That I could be getting in on some action that I've been missing out on most of my life."

Arthur looked at her confused.

"You know?" She asked, "Gunfights, car chases? Evil men in stolen Iron Man armor, the Battle of New York?"

"Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent does not allow you to become imminently involved with those kinds of high-profile missions, Ms. Sheila." Arthur said, as he pulled into a large hangar, "S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't even involved with the battle outside of monitoring it and being forced by the World Council to almost blow up Manhattan. Second, it further means that we do not always do what you think of in terms of what your limited exposure might've lead you to believe. Third, real people die on missions. You could be one of them. These…events that you speak of have opened the gate for new heroes as well as new villains. It's our job to take down those who don't abide by the law but it also means that things don't always go our way."

"Whatever." Katie mumbled, listening to her iPhone.

Finally, the two pulled up next to a giant plane and Arthur turned the car off. The two exited and entered the plane. There, they were met with four more members. There were three women, (one with brown hair, one with red hair, and one with dirty blonde hair,) and a man with black hair. As they stepped forward, some last few agents in airplane clothes came in to secure Arthur's car inside the plane, and also hand him a file. Soon they left, and Arthur looked at his new team.

"Agents," Arthur said, in a commanding voice, "Fall in."

The ones already gathered got into a line. Arthur glared at Katie and she quickly joined the line at the far right.

"Now," Arthur said, "Let's hear your names and positions."

The one with the red hair stepped up first.

"Agent Jessica Smith," She said, "Team Pilot. It'll be a pleasure working with you, Agent Williams."

"It will be a pleasure working with you too, I take it."

He looked at the girl with curly brown hair who stepped up.

"Agent Faye Anne Carter." She introduced, "Field Agent and also supervisor to you, Agent Williams."

Arthur eyed her.

"I don't recall being told about this." Arthur said.

"Well then I'm sorry you were not informed." Faye replied.

"Is that a joke?" Arthur asked.

"No. It's the honest-to-god truth." Faye replied, "I was told this when I was at the academy."

"Can anybody vouch for you then?" Arthur asked.

"Um…I can…"

Arthur moved over to the next agent. He was a not-too skinny or buff man with black hair, and brown eyes.

"Uh…Agent Bruce Gordon." He introduced, "I was with her and Agent Sabrina Washionton…" He pointed to the girl with the brown hair, "When we were all assigned to come to you. Ms. Anne Weave at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy said that she would most likely be keeping you in check."

Arthur took a look over Bruce and then looked over at Sabrinia.

"And what exactly is your areas of expertise, might I ask?" He questioned.

"Oh," Bruce noted, "I'm your team engineer and she's the team biologist. We're pretty good."

"Then I hope you two make a name for yourself here." He said, "I will be checking over my files in my office. I expect us to be in the air by the time I'm done. This here is Ms. Katie Sheila…"

"Uh…" Katie asked, "I thought it was 'Agent Sheila'…"

Arthur cut her off.

"She's obviously very inexperienced, so please try and make sure she learns quickly. In the meantime those not flying have an opportunity to get to know one another while I'm going over my files. I suggest you do so now."

With that he left, along with Jessica.

"So…" Bruce said to Katie, "I might as well show you our place."

He led them to the lab which was a small area with different test tubes, chemicals, toolkits, and computers/holograms along with different weapons lying on the table. Katie saw one and her eyes widened.

"Oh…my…god!" She declared, picking out a weapon from the table, "Is this an M60 Machine Gun?!"

"Uh…yes…" Bruce asked, "We've modified it to fire the standard 'night-night' gun rounds developed by Agents Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons. But where did you learn of this gun from? I thought Arthur Williams said you were unexperienced with combat."

"Are you kidding?" Katie laughed, "You guys ever saw Rambo: First Blood?! I freaking loved that movie!"

….

_**Meanwhile….**_

Arthur opened the door to his office. He inspected the room. His office was nice and quaint, with a wooden floor while the wals and ceiling were white stone. In front of him was a desk with a chair behind it and two chairs in the front. A small lamp was positioned on there and behind his chair was a monitor that he assumed could be used for communication with other S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents when the time came for it, as well as for briefing when a member of his own team came into the office.

But to his surprise, the room was actually well-furnished and even had decorative ornaments. Some of the stuff he remembered buying back when he was a low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. It was mostly just stuff like model planes, or some old artistic abstract paintings, which was something he could easily afford and hopefully lie to say he was doing something else whenever not on S.H.I.E.L.D. duty. But then he noticed the more personal thing on his desk as he went behind it to sit down.

Standing upright on the table was a photo of a young boy with brown hair smiling as he was riding around in a Captain America peddle car, as a woman was kneeling down behind him and smiling as well. She had long auburn hair, and looked pretty good considering the facts of what had happened to her before this photo was taken. Arthur frowned and put the photo down, opening a desk drawer on the bottom right, and throwing it in there. He hoped nobody had seen it, but shrugged it off as it wasn't important for right now and instead decided to continue going over the file he had received regarding his team's first mission.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

They were in the air now. Jessica Smith was relieved.

She could now take this quick moment to go over what she had observed from the rest of the team. As she predicted, she could tell Arthur was going to be a tough case to deal with. His new protégé on the other hand? It was clear she had no prior experience to anything of use for field work, but it had been made clear by Fury that she was a newbie. Then again, she figured that this girl, Katie, might be faking the act to try and get into S.H.I.E.L.D. for reasons unknown. It seemed unlikely, but Jessica didn't want to rule it out at any moment in the future.

The least possible people she felt she'd have to spy on were Bruce and Sabrina. They were nice people, just shy. Hell, Jessica wouldn't mind actually training them in the near-future if they hadn't had any previous close encounters.

But on the subject of training, that brought her to the biggest concern of the team; Faye Anne Carter. Faye had a good reputation at the academy, and it was clear she didn't like Arthur either. However, her stoic nature seemed to always rub Jessica in the wrong way. Plus, the way she talked just didn't feel right. She'd have to call Fury later and discuss this with him, but she felt that Faye would probably be the most likely candidate. Otherwise, she'd have to observe the team more, and hopefully find a way to do it clandestinely, as Faye might be the second smartest person (in terms of experience in spying) on the plane aside from Arthur.

As Jessica set the plane to autopilot, she heard a knock at the door.

"It's open." She called out.

The door opened up and much to her shock, Faye entered with two cups filled with coffee in her hands.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked, "I just needed a breather and I thought you might want some coffee."

Jessica was cautious, but didn't show it in her face. Instead she nodded as Faye took a seat in the empty co-pilot chair. She handed Jessica a cup and the pilot took a careful sip, confirming it was safe.

"You all right?" Faye asked.

"Yes." Jessica lied, "Just need to make sure it's not too hot. I had a bad experience with that once. I nearly burned my lower lip off."

"Trust me." Faye said, "I think if there's going to be any burning up here, it's going to be from Arthur."

"Can I ask you something?" Jessica questioned.

"Sure." Faye asked, "What?"

"You said you were here to help Arthur." Jessica pointed out, "But it's clear that you hate him as much as I do. How do you think you can help him when every other experience in the past has led to him ending up without any friends or relationships?"

"Honestly?" Faye answered, "I think we can coax him with his protégé. That new girl, Katie? She seems like a really smart girl, almost on-par with him in terms of knowledge of explosives, weaponry and fighting skills. She's downstairs right now chatting it up with Bruce and Sabrina. She seems to know every kind of skill or firearm in the book. The problem with her is that she wasn't raised in the same environment at Arthur, and it seems as if all her social skills are nonexistent save for what she trained herself to do with bombs, and all she has to go on are nothing beyond action films, and TV shows. The advantage here is that Arthur has those same experiences with not being sociable, so I'm hoping I can convince him to try and look into her backstory more. Who knows? Maybe there's something in her past that Arthur can relate to and sympathize with her."

"Perhaps." Jessica answered, taking down mental notes to remember for later, "I just feel that…"

Before she could finish, there was a voice over the intercoms.

"Attention Agents," Arthur's voice called, "This is Arthur Williams requesting a meeting in my office in the next five minutes. All agents are to report to there for briefing on our first mission."

Jessica and Faye looked at each other.

"Well," Jessica said, getting up as Faye did so as well, "Duty calls."

….

_**Earlier, back in the plane's lab…**_

"So you've never seen Rambo?" Katie asked.

"No." Sabrina said, shaking her head.

"What about The Rock?" Katie asked, "Sean Connery? Nicholas Cage? Nothing?"

"No." Bruce answered.

"Man," Katie said, "You guys REALLY need to get some time to watch those movies then. There's this great scene where Cage and Connery are trying to get into Alcatraz Island, so Connery asks Cage if he's ready, and when Cage says he'll try his best, Connery says…." She paused to clear her throat and then in her best Connery impersonation said, "'Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and…'"

Before she could finish, there was an announcement on the intercoms.

"Attention Agents," Arthur's voice called, "This is Arthur Williams requesting a meeting in my office in the next five minutes. All agents are to report to there for briefing on our first mission."

Katie sighed.

"Oh, well." She declared as they left the lab, "I'll tell you guys later, it's a really great film anyways."

"I'd image." Sabrina said as she and Bruce took comfort in the fact that Katie's exposition of movie knowledge was over for the time being.

….

_**Five Minutes Later…**_

Arthur looked up from his files and his built-in interactive table computer, as he saw his new team standing upright in a single file.

"Thank you for attending." Arthur greeted, "Now let's talk about our first mission."

He pressed a few buttons on his table and instantly, a photo was shown on the hologram behind him. It was of a middle-aged looking man with greying brown hair and a short white beard, dressed in a black tux and bowtie.

"This," Arthur said, pointing to the man, "Is Professor Thomas Hanely. Museum curator and the man responsible for a new traveling exhibit featuring ancient Egyptian artifacts."

He pressed another button and more images came up featuring different items from agent Egypt as well as a New Zeeland museum.

"Recently," Arthur explained, "The good Professor Hanely discovered a new set of Egyptian artifacts that were apparently related to the supposed legend of Egyptian Princess Kaaris'a. The legends say that the princess descended from the heavens in a chariot not of this world, and the royal pharaoh at the time saw her as the answer to a child he could never have with his wife. Unfortunately Kaaris'a had what the legends say were powers not of this earth, and eventually the people of Egypt managed to capture and mummify her. Of course, this isn't a legend any longer as a few weeks ago, Hanely discovered many items and a sarcophagus that match the ones used in the legend."

"So why are we being called in?" Jessica asked.

"Because," Arthur pointed out, "After traveling around for a while, there were reports that came in. People missing after closing hours, statues being vandalized, and nobody caught any footage of any lawbreakers going in. And those cameras were activated throughout the whole night. So either something big is about to happen, or we might be dealing with an incredibly talented prankster. Regardless, we're setting course for New Zeeland to meet with Professor Hanely, look at the exhibit, and hopefully assist in any way we can to prevent these things from happening again. Are there any questions?"

"Can we visit the locations where they filmed The Hobbit?" Katie asked.

Everyone looked at her and Arthur groaned.

"Sweet merciful god." He groaned, "Let's just set a flight for New Zeeland. Dismissed."

Everyone left.

…

_**Soon…**_

The Spec-Ops plane touched down on the grassy outskirts of the New Zeeland community that was apparently holding the exhibition. Afterwards, Arthur told the team his plan of action, he would go to the facility alongside Katie and Faye, whilst Jessica stayed behind to guard the plane, leaving Bruce and Sabrina behind with her to go over anything regarding the legend of Kaaris'a, in case there was anything the team had missed in the legend that would explain the history behind the princess.

After driving in Arthur's car for a while, they pulled up in front of the museum where the person from the photos Arthur had shown was waiting for them.

"Professor Thomas Hanely," Arthur said, stepping out of the car, "My name is Arthur Williams. I work with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. But you can call it S.H.I.E.L.D. for short. These are my associates, Agent Faye Carter and Ms. Katie Sheila."

"Good to meet you." Professor Hanely said, shaking Arthur's hand, "I take it that this won't be that big a problem at all?"

"We won't know until we check the exhibit, sir." Arthur said, "If there is any collateral damage, we will try and help you compensate for any destruction, but right now our main priority is seeing if this exhibit is okay or not."

Professor Hanely sighed, but nodded.

"Very well, then." He declared, "Follow me and I'll show you the exhibit."

….

_**Later…**_

Surprisingly, Katie had wanted to go to a museum when she was younger. She was one of those girls who tried to do something different with their lives, and as such decided that one day she would try and visit a museum to see things like a few dinosaur bones, some space stuff, etc.

This was not the way she imagined her first visit to a museum would go down.

There were a number of exhibits that were currently being renovated at the museum when they arrived. As Professor Hanely had told them, following the massive battle with the Chitauri in Manhattan, a number of museums were being updated worldwide to talk about how there was now confirmed alien life beyond this little blue planet. As such, most exhibits were being shut down so that they could update whatever facts they had on the matter.

There were some exhibits still open though and they had to pass through the Mayan exhibit which included a little river made underneath a wooden bridge which they passed over. As Katie continued to look over the exhibits which featured mannequins of people being sacrificed, she suddenly realized that besides educating people, museums were also a reminder of those who died in the past and how gruesome it must've been for them.

Soon they reached the end and ascended the stairs until they entered a hallway, making a right at a door halfway down the hall, where they finally reached the Egyptian exhibit. It was a massive room which had been made to look like an Ancient Egyptian Pyramid's interior. Hieroglyphics covered the walls featuring different images from jackals, to pharaoh's, and even one featuring a young woman dressed in white silk with long black hair smiling as she sat ontop of a throne.

Additionally, there were some glass windows in the walls which contained artifacts from knives, to cups, and even headwear. Placed on each side of these glass displays were two statues of Jackals with human bodies holding giant spears which seemed to have a scythe attached to the front end.

"So this is where all the trouble has happened?" Faye asked.

"That's correct, ma'am." Professor Hanely said, "Most of the people who helped recover the statue with me had heard about the old legend of Kaaris'a. How she came from the heavens, the royal pharaoh of the town she landed in adopted her, and how she took over her civilization using what the people back then called 'magic.' As it so happens, they eventually found a way to trap her when she was in her sleep, by cutting of two of her fingers and then mummifying her alive."

"When did these events star occurring?" Arthur asked, taking mental notes in his head.

"About three months or so after we opened." The museum curator explained, "There was nothing wrong at first, but then the people working the late-night security at this place began to claim they heard a young girl moaning during the night watch hours. Then the staff that stayed behind starting disappearing. All we had on the security footage was then going into the exhibit. Then there was a great flash of light and after that, nothing. They were just gone."

"May we see the exhibit containing her sarcophagus then?" Arthur asked.

"You may." Professor Hanely said.

He led them further into the exhibit, and eventually they came to the sarcophagus. It was medium sized, but looked as if it had been built for a queen. Apparently it seemed as if despite all their troubles, the Egyptians might've recognized her as still being of high royalty and she deserved the proper tomb. It was golden and was covered with different hieroglyphics.

"There it is." Professor Hanely explained, "The tomb of Princess Kaaris'a."

"Thank you, Professor Hanely." Arthur said, "Would you mind leaving us to let us study it? We promise to try and keep everything intact."

"Very well." Hanely said, turning and leaving.

Once he was gone, Arthur took out his phone as Faye moved the little rope blocking guests off from touching the sarcophagus and began to look over the tomb. Katie just watched as Arthur began taking photos of the sarcophagus.

"For the Team Album I take it?" Katie asked.

Arthur glared at her. He was getting really annoyed now at how many times he had to tell her that work was not always like a comic book.

"No." He said, with enough hate for her to hear, "I'm sending this to Bruce and Sabrina for them to analyze back at the plane lab. If you want to do something, I suggest that you either go help Faye in her investigations, or you stay there silently."

"Fine," Katie groaned, "Yeash. Who killed you and made you into the walking dead?"

Arthur sighed as he finished sending the work to Sabrina and Bruce and called them up on his phone.

"Sabrina, Bruce?" Arthur asked, "I've just sent you photos of the tomb, is there anything you can tell from it?"

….

_**Back at the plane labs…**_

Sabrina and Bruce were already at work when the first photographs came in.

They had already put the photographs into the hologram projections in the lab and were running all types of analysis checks to see if there was anything unusual about the sarcophagus. Eventually, there was a 'ping' sound heard and some information popped up in a separate hologram window, which contained the materials found in the sarcophagus.

Sabrina and Bruce looked over it, quickly cross-checking their database for any materials that were in the list. Eventually, they found one and froze.

"Oh dear…" Sabrina whispered quietly.

"This is bad." Bruce added.

"Sabrina? Bruce?" Arthur's voice asked from the communications channel.

"Okay…" Bruce said, trying to keep his head focused, "How do you want to hear this sir? Do you want the bad news, the really bad news, or the worst news?"

"I want all three of them in that order you just mentioned." Arthur's voice said.

"Okay." Bruce declared, "We ran a check of all materials that were used for the tomb. Part of the substance appears to be alien."

"Alien?" Arthur asked, a hint of concern in his voice, "As in Chitauri alien?"

"Worse than that." Sabrina answered, "Whatever that tomb is made of? It's got fragments of the same energy that runs through the Tesseract in there."

There was a pause before Arthur spoke again.

"So it's essentially another Tesseract." He finally stated, his voice calm as if he were trying to grasp the danger the world was in now.

"Not exactly." Sabrina corrected, "We've seen that it's not as powerful as the Tesseract and can't really power anything."

"So we don't have to worry about portals from other dimensions opening up and spitting asgardians or alien armies out." Arthur said, his voice showing a brief hint of relief, "Then what's the concern?"

"While it doesn't share the same abilities as the Tesseract, sir," Bruce explained, "It does seem to be able to almost…I guess you could say 'feed' off of people if you will."

"What do you mean 'feed off of people?'" Arthur demanded.

"Well," Sabrina answered, "Imagine if you will, that it absorbs your entire being into a different form of energy. These pieces of energy are then absorbed through the source, and into the fragments. This allows the fragments to gain more energy like nutrients, to grow stronger."

"You said there was one last bad piece of information." Arthur pointed out, "What is it?"

Sabrina and Bruce looked at each other and then back at the transmission frequency.

"Sir…" Bruce explained, "This might be a malfunction, but it looks like…it looks like there might actually be something alive in the sarcophagus."

….

_**Back at the museum…**_

As Arthur discussed the news with Bruce and Sabrina, he failed to notice Katie walking over to Faye who continued to check the sarcophagus.

"Um…hi." Katie said.

Faye paused briefly to look at Katie.

"Sorry about earlier." Katie said, "I usually get to be caught up in explaining when I like certain movies or not. But if it helps…can I look over that thing with you. Give you an extra hand?"

Faye looked Katie over and sighed.

"Sure." She said.

Katie nodded and went up to the opposite side of the tomb Faye was looking over and began scanning it.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Katie asked.

"Anything that might look out of place." Faye told her.

Katie was about to make a comment, but given the number of times Arthur had clearly not been amused by her antics, she feared Faye might be the same and instead kept quiet as they looked over the tomb. They continued to do so for about fifteen seconds before Faye spoke again.

"No witty comment then?" She asked.

Katie looked up at her amazed.

"You don't mind?" She asked, before looking back at the sarcophagus.

Faye kept looking before speaking.

"I don't always like to joke on the job." She admitted, "But at least I'm more sensitive than Arthur. I'm a trainer for new agents, you know. Sometimes one of the common traits I find that helps them through is that they tell jokes or say witty lines to keep their minds sharp."

"Could you teach me how to do that sometime?" Katie asked.

"Why?" Faye asked, "It seems like you know enough as it is."

"I don't think I do." Katie admitted, "If Arthur keeps telling me life is never like one of the action movies I keep watching, I think I may actually have to better myself."

Faye raised an eyebrow inquisitively. She was honestly impressed with the fact that Katie was actually willing to learn and better herself.

"Tell you what," She said, "Why don't I speak to Arthur later, and we'll see about getting you proper training? I can't guarantee anything, but I will try my best. Okay?"

"Okay." Katie nodded, "Thanks."

Suddenly, Katie noticed something on the head she hadn't found before. It looked like a crack which had a green light seeping out.

"Hey guys!" Katie declared, "Come look at what I found! It's some kind of green light inside of the tomb."

At that moment, Arthur who had been putting the notes he had taken together suddenly realized how these events might be occurring. He turned around and saw Katie was pointing to said green glow, and Arthur already feared what would happen next.

"KATIE NO!" He yelled, running up and tackling her. She fell to the ground but it was too late. Her finger had already touched the crack. Suddenly, there was a loud scraping noise and the tomb opened up to reveal a young girl inside who was throwing wrappings off of her body. She wore a light white dress and had two golden bracelets on each of her hands, and her long dark hair seemed to be made for that of high Egyptian Royalty.

"Dammit!" Arthur declared, holding his gun at the newcomer.

"Ma'am!" He declared, "Either come with us quietly or we will put you down!"

The girl just stood there, tilting her head at Arthur in a curious expression.

"Fine." He said, as he unloaded a number of rounds on her.

Much to his shock, the girl simply waved her hands and a golden light appeared in front of her which absorbed the bullets before they could tear through her.

Soon, Arthur was out, so he dropped it as the golden light disappeared.

"Okay then." He said, "We do this hand-to-hand."

Arthur rushed at her, spinning around to kick her, but much to the amazement of everyone, the girl managed to catch his foot and hold it in place. As much as Arthur tried to move it, the girl was somehow too strong for him. Finally, she tightened her grip on his leg which was much more powerful than Arthur had anticipated, and she effortlessly threw him across the room to the right, where he crashed into one of the cases, breaking it as he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Oh shit." Katie exclaimed, softly.

The Egyptian Princess turned to the two women as they heard Bruce and Sabrina's voices in their earpieces.

"Katie! Faye!" Sabrinia asked, "Arthur's been knocked out, but listen. This thing seems to absorb the properties and experiences of whatever it touches! You need to be extra careful."

"Wait a second." Katie declared, "The properties of whatever it touches… and Professor Hanely said that they killed her by cutting her fingers off…"

She thought about the facts, and then it hit her.

"I got it!" She declared, "Oh, Arthur is going to be so mad when he finds this out!"

She turned to Faye.

"Faye!" She said, "Keep the Mummy Girl distracted. I need to get some stuff."

Faye watched as Katie took off. Not leaving her much of a choice, she began to circle the princess.

The two stared at each other. It felt odd for Faye to be facing someone who seemed to appear as stoic as she usually did. Just then, Faye made the first move and threw a punch towards the princess. To her shock, the princess did a hand-stand, catching Faye's fist with her feet. She then flipped herself over, sending Faye to the ground.

_Okay…_ Faye thought to herself, _This is going to be more difficult than I imagined._

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Katie ran down the halls, as she came across Professor Hanely who looked at her confused.

"What's going on in there?" He asked.

"Sir," Katie explained, "I don't understand the logic behind this any more than you do, but I'm afraid your Princess on display is actually a living mummy that seems to have been feeding off of everybody who inspected it and is now in the process of kicking my fellow agent's around like rag dolls."

"What?!" Professor Hanely declared.

"But it's okay!" Katie assured him, "Because I know a way to stop her. I just need to borrow some mannequins and an exhibit piece and then I promise I'll return them to where they were."

Professor Hanely questioned this, but the sounds of fighting from the inside of the exhibit told him he would have to trust her for now.

"Okay." He said, "Let's head to the basement then."

….

_**Back in the exhibit…**_

Faye looked up to see the Princess above her with her foot held high, ready to smash Faye's face in. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent rolled to the side as the Princess brought the foot down. The impact actually left an imprint of her foot in there, and the room shook slightly.

Arthur groaned as he pushed himself off the ground. Looking forward, his eyesight recovered and he saw Agent Faye Carter engaging with the Princess.

Arthur pushed himself up fully to get back on his feet. His body hurt like hell, but he had endured this kind of pain on more than one occasion. Sometimes, he actually had worst injuries than this. Running up, Arthur got enough momentum to leap into the air, and delivered a flying kick to the Princess's head, sending her to the ground.

The two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents looked at each other and Faye nodded.

"I'm not going to lie." Faye noted, "That was impressive."

Arthur was about to say something when the two were suddenly sent to the ground by the Princess who did a sweeping kick that sent both of them crashing on their backs into the stone hard floor. Before either could react, the Princess grabbed their necks and began to choke them out. The longer her grip was on them, the more Arthur and Faye began to feel weaker. It was like their bodies were being drained of all their energy. The Princess just stood above them, her eyes locked on them as if they were her prey.

Then without warning, two blades moved between the Princess's hands and cut them off from where the bracelets ended, literally disarming the princess. She screamed in pain as Arthur and Faye regained their strength and pushed themselves up to see Katie standing there with two Egyptian blades from the exhibit as well as two mannequin dummy hands which were sticking out from behind her shit.

"Sorry," Katie said sarcastically as she reached behind her, grabbing the mannequin hands, "Those really were nice hands. Let me make it up to you."

With that, she slammed the mannequin hands into the stumps where the Princess's hands used to be. The Princess screamed and collapsed to the ground as her whole body began changing. Her skin began to change dark grey looking almost plastic-like to match the color of the dummy hands. Then her hair changed the same color, until the Princess's entire body now looked like a giant mannequin dummy.

"Well," Katie said, turning behind her, "It's alright Professor Hanely! The threat's been neutralized."

Professor Hanely came out from behind a corner, sighing as he inspected the damage that had been done.

"Sorry about the mess," Katie apologized, "And we might need to hold onto the Princess here. But like Arthur said, this was to be expected, and I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D. will find a way to pay you back. All-in-all, not a bad job if I do say so myself."

….

_**Later, Back on the Plane…**_

Katie waited outside Arthur's office as he debriefed Faye. After they had recovered, Arthur had called in a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who arrived to remove of both the body and the tomb. They came equipped with gloves and transportation for both items that appeared to be made from the same substance as the mannequin dummies that she had used to defeat the Princess.

They explained that after Arthur had contacted them, he had given them info to contact Bruce and Sabrina so they could also explain what had happened. Afterwards, S.H.I.E.L.D. informed Professor Hanely that they would have to keep hold of the body and sarcophagus, but would be sure to help him repair the exhibit and give him extra incentives for his cooperation.

As she gathered her thoughts, Faye exited the room and looked at Katie. She just nodded, motioning towards the room.

Katie got up and went inside. She found Arthur sitting at his desk, looking over some paperwork before he glanced up to see her.

"Ah," He said, "There you are. Please. Have a seat."

Katie walked up and took a seat in the left chair in front of his desk. Arthur continued looking over his work but continued to speak to her.

"Do you know what the most tedious part of any law enforcement positon is?" He asked.

Katie thought, but shook her head.

"No." She admitted.

"It's the paperwork." Arthur said, putting the sheet down on the table and then looking at her, "Your improvisation was much-appreciated and well-timed, but you were extremely sloppy today."

Arthur's words were like a sucker-punch to Katie's mind.

"What?!" She demanded.

"You engaged in your own plan without consulting the Commanding Officer of this team," Arthur said, "You broke some private property and used it to cut off a being without any hesitation, and you told Professor Hanely things we had to get permission for before we could tell him what he would be getting without any sort of hesitation and certainty that what you said would be true."

He reached into his desk and pulled out a big red book with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on there

"Starting now," Arthur explained, "I want for you to read this entire book on how to be a proper S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. After that, you will be given a test on everything in there and I expect a full 100% grade when you finish. Dismissed."

Katie looked awestruck and simply took the book storming out of her office.

Faye watched her leave, and then felt her blood getting hot. She walked back into the office without even knocking, finding Arthur in there as he continued to look over his work.

"What the hell was that?!" She demanded.

Arthur calmly put the paper down and looked back at her.

"I'm sorry?" He asked, "Did you never hear of knocking?"

"Cut the crap, Arthur." Faye swore, "Admit it. You were impressed by her today, but you didn't feel as if she deserved the proper recognition."

"I can assure you," Arthur said, getting up and looking at her, "That my feelings about Ms. Sheila have in no way affected my evaluation on her."

"Wow!" Faye said sarcastically, as Arthur sat back down in his desk, rubbing his eyes with his hands, "That is the first time I think anybody's ever heard you admit you actually had feelings about someone."

"What the hell do you want, Agent?" Arthur asked, putting his hands down.

"To get to know her better." Faye told him, "Ms. Weaver told me that I was to supervise the relation between you and your protégé. In my opinion, you treated her like dirt today so I think she is owed an apology and a chance for you two to bond and get to know each other better."

"I'm sorry," Arthur said, sarcastically, "But I was not given any information about this authority outside of what our engineer and biologist said when they vouched for you. That kind of power can only be granted by Director Nicholas Fury and seeing as how he left no claims, that means you have no authority over me to say such things. Now either get out, or get the hell off my plane and let me do the work that actually matters!"

Arthur slammed his fist down as he said that, hoping to make Faye jump a little, but to his surprise; she was unfazed by his outburst.

Just then, the built-in phone communications on his desk rang, and he picked up.

"Whoever this is," Arthur told them, "I'm in no mood for any damn jokes someone might be playing on me. Now unless this is urgent business that needs to be addressed to me, you can get the hell off this line or…"

"I'm sorry, Agent Williams." A familiar voice said, which made Arthur stop dead in his tracks, "Is this a bad time?"

It was Director Fury.

His mouth agape, Arthur quickly regained his composure and addressed the Director the proper way.

"Uh…Director Fury." Arthur said, quickly regaining his proper attitude, "My apologies, sir. I've had a rather rough day and all."

"Well, you and your team did manage to neutralize and stop a living mummy." Fury pointed out, "Stuff like that calls for a celebration in my opinion. Used to be after every mission, a team would break out champagne and party all night. Anyways, I just wanted to go over some stuff that Hill forgot to mention. I take it you've already met Faye Anne Carter."

Arthur looked at her suspiciously before turning back to the phone.

"I have." Arthur said.

"Well," Fury explained, "Hill forgot to tell you that Faye will be your supervisor for your relationship between yourself and Ms. Katie Sheila. Hill was supposed to tell you that there was a note in your office drawer on the bottom right side which explained this, but she was busy and it slipped her mind until she remembered just a few minutes ago."

Arthur's face was shocked, but he continued.

"Okay, Director." He said, "I understand."

"Good." Fury said, "Because don't forget. Coulson's protégé Skye started off as a street kid who already joined the Rising Tide and she managed to become a damn good agent. No reason why someone like you and Faye couldn't turn Katie Sheila into a well-versed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, I'd imagine."

"No." Arthur said, "Don't worry, sir. We'll do our best."

"Good." Fury noted, "Your next mission will be coming in soon. Oh, and one more thing; remember to speak to Ms. Sheila like a human being and not as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"I will sir." Arthur said.

"Good." Fury said, "Over and out."

With that, the call finished. Arthur looked back at Faye who had a confident hint of a smirk across her face.

"So then, Agent Williams," Faye said, "Allow me to evaluate how your relationship with Katie Sheila has been so far…"

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Jessica closed the door to the secret commas channel, listening to Arthur's groans coming from his office. She smiled to herself.

Whether or not Faye was a threat, there was one thing she agreed on; Katie was S.H.I.E.L.D. material, but Arthur had to get to know her better. She was glad she brought this up to Fury and that Arthur was now getting some kind of a comeuppance.

Heading back to the plane controls, she hoped that the two would find some connection and that Arthur would learn to trust Katie more.

….

_**Meanwhile,**_

_**Portland, Oregon…**_

Mark Brian awoke in his bed next to his wife. He noticed to his confusion that there was some red substance in the bed. As he turned on the light, he yelled in fear.

His wife was lying in bed next to him, covered in knife stabs and bleeding all over the bed covers.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Mark yelled, "JESUS CHRIST!"

"Oh, look who decided to show up for the epilogue then." A gruff, yet almost nasally-like voice asked.

Mark turned to see a newcomer in the room. He was a man wearing a purple coat, pants, shirt and shoes. But the most disturbing part was that the man's entire body was purple. His skin, his eyes, everything. Besides those noticeable features, the man's hair was slicked downwards and he had hints of beard stubble on his face.

"Officer Mark Brian." The man said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Zebediah Killgrave."

He held out his hand expecting a handshake. Mark was too frightened and wanted to run but for some reason, his body was telling him to stay in place so he did so.

Seeing as how Mark wasn't going to respond, the newcomer put his hand down and shrugged.

"A bit of a mouthful, I know." He said, "But that's why people just usually call me…The Purple Man."

Mark looked at The Purple Man amazed.

"My…my wife…" He asked.

"Oh, no." The Purple Man chuckled, "Mark. I had you kill your own wife last week! You enjoyed it."

He looked deep into Mark's eyes and his eyes suddenly became as purple as the intruder's skin."

"You still are." The Purple Man told him.

Mark just smiled, literally believing what The Purple Man told him.

"Now," The Purple Man declared, "You must be wondering who I am to break in and how I'm able to make you do what I want, but quite frankly, we're running out of time and the chapter's almost over. So let's just say that for now until my official TV (or is it Netflix now) debut begins, and this becomes more than likely irrelevant, let's just say I'm a man dowsed in experimental chemicals that create pheromones released through my now-purple skin which are inhaled by the victims (that's you,) to make you do whatever I want. Here, let me show you."

He clapped his hands and suddenly, another man faded into view. He was a somewhat hefty man wearing a police officer's uniform.

"I simply asked you not to see him here." The Purple Man explained, turning to the officer, "Tell the viewer's your name, sir."

"Dan…" The Officer said, "Dan Bachelo."

"Dan Bachelo…" Purple Man declared, rubbing his chin, "Hm…I have the feeling that the author doesn't like you, or care about you for some reason."

He looked at the officer.

"Why don't you…" Purple Man said, thinking for a second.

He pondered for five seconds before smiling.

"Why don't you shoot yourself in the face?" Purple Man asked, suggestively.

"Okay." Dan smiled, pulling out his gun and pointing it at his head.

BLAM!

Mark yelled in horror, as his partner's body fell to the floor dead.

"That was not fake." Purple Man grinned as he looked back at Mark who was horrified.

"Oh, come now, Mark." Purple Man urged, "It's okay? You know why? He was a minor supporting character. He was just a 'nobody-cares' victim the writer could use for me to prove my point? Okay? Everything's fine."

Mark felt a feeling of calmness and nodded.

"Good." Purple Man declared, "Now, I was originally just going to have you jump out your own bedroom window, but then I realized, I have a new backstory now. This is going to be a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to do something different where I can be a self-aware character without the author resorting to a cheap tactic like using Deadpool. You understand, don't you, Mark?"

Mark nodded.

"Yes." Mark said, "I do."

"I knew I could count on you, Mark." The Purple Man smiled, "Now. Here's what I want you to do. I need you to find a woman for me. Her name is Jessica Jones. I know how this is going to play out but I'll tell you anyways, she's a private investigator. I need you to find Jessica and tell her I'm coming back. Tell her the Purple Man is coming back for her."

He paused as Mark nodded, understanding his orders.

"And then you can go ahead and kill yourself, okay?"

"Yes." Mark nodded.

"Good." Purple Man said, straitening his clothes out, "You know, Mark…I'm sad that you're not going to be around for the rest of the series. But it'll be retconned anyways, okay? It'll be like you never existed."

He grinned.

"Go get 'em, Tiger." Purple Man smiled.

With that, Mark got dressed and left. Purple Man grabbed a nearby beer bottle and took a swing as he watched Mark leave.

"Mark leaves the room," Purple Man said to no one in particular, "And…scene."

_**TO BE CONTINUED…**_

**So there you go, everyone. Now for those wondering, Princess Kaaris'a was originally from the comic series ROM, which was based on an action figure of the same name. ROM actually ended up outlasting the toy line in comics and the Marvel series actually gave him backstory and actions that still have lasting effects on the rest of the mainstream Marvel U to this day, even after losing the rights to him. For more information, I would suggest googling it or check out that Atop the 4****th**** Wall video where they have the ROM Retrospective. Oh, and if you're still not convinced to track down any ROM comics, the series was written by the same guy who created Rocket Raccoon. So there's your incentive.**

**Also, for those of you wondering about the Purple Man, here's a brief lowdown; in the comics, Purple Man was originally one of those Z-List Supervillains even by the standards of his original appearance in 1964. However, the character gained more recognition when Brian Michael Bendis (who was the writer that got ME into reading comics,) wrote his Mature Marvel MAX Series called Alias (not to be confused with the ABC show, mind you,) which told the story of former-super-hero-turned-Private-Investigator Jessica Jones, and that her attempts at being a hero were dashed when she encountered Killgrave and he ended up controlling her for eight months without…using her, let's say, instead making her beg for him to love her. Eventually, after Daredevil ended up saving the city for the umpteenth time, Killgrave sent Jessica out in a fit of rage to kill Daredevil, but she ended up attacking the Scarlet Witch, breaking her trance, but making Jessica realize that she had failed to be a superheroine. Years later, Jessica finally confronted Killgrave and managed to beat him single-handedly. In this series, Bendis cleverly reimagined Killgrave making him sadistic and funny at the same time, having Purple Man be self-aware of his existence in the comic and pointing out all the flaws and little tidbits here and there (hence the fourth wall breaking here.) In fact, it was so well-written that I think Killgrave is #3 on my all-time favorite villains list, coming just close to being a tie with The Joker at #2 (#1 is Norman Osborn during the Brian Michael Bendis Avengers years and prior to the Dan Slott Superior Spider-Man years.)**

**So why Killgrave for the next villain? Well, there's a new show based on the Alias Comics being filmed here in New York, and I was inspired to write Killgrave before his debut after watching a well-written fan-film about the character. Plus, Purple Man's going to be portrayed by former Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, so it's not hard to imagine him holding control over people and making them obey his commands.**

**So otherwise there you go. The first mission is done. Next time, the team tackles the Purple Man, and Arthur and Katie will try to get to know each other better (if The Purple Man doesn't kill them before that is.)**

**Hope you all enjoyed. As always, reviews are appreciated, and as always, I own NOTHING except my OC's. My fellow fafic authors created their OC's and everything else was created by Marvel. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue!**


	6. Purple Haze

**Hi everyone. Welcome back to the second mission of this Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. OC Story. This time, the group goes up against the master manipulator that is The Purple Man. As with last time, this may be disturbing to some people, but I kept it within the T rating as best I could. So it's still worth the 'T' rating, but you might be surprised by what's in there. Just as a fair warning. Other than that, hope you enjoy! As always, I own nothing but my OC's. This is for fan-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! With that said, enjoy!**

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Katie jumped up from reading the book when she heard the knock at her door.

This is it. She told herself, as she opened the door to find Arthur there, I'm gonna flunk the test and I'll never be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent…

Arthur just looked at her unmoved and unfazed by anything that was going on.

"You don't need to study the book anymore for the time being." Arthur said, "We're touching down in Washington DC in about five minutes. We have some downtime before our next assignment. There's a bar that's not too far away. I was hoping that you would perhaps join me for a drink."

Katie looked at him amazed.

"Are you jerking me around here?" She asked.

"No," Arthur sighed, "I am not jerking you around. I thought I would make this an opportunity for us to get to know each other better."

Katie looked around and shrugged.

"All right." She said, "Don't see what I have to lose."

….

_**Soon, Washington DC, Joss's Cabin Bar…**_

Arthur and Katie sat across from each other at a lone booth. Neither said anything until the waitress brought them their drinks.

"Thank you." Arthur said as he and Katie each took the beer they had ordered from the tray.

"Never would've thought that you were a drinker." Katie pointed out, "Don't we have a bar on the Spec Ops Plane?"

"We do." Arthur admitted, "But I feel as though sometimes that the wine and alcohol we get on there is pure garbage, so I prefer the types that usually don't come from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s paycheck. After all, it helps so that they don't always have to pay for everything."

"Didn't know you cared." Katie explained, as Arthur took a swing of his beer, "Also, you seem a lot more chattier than usual. Weren't you the same guy who's been harassing me since Day One with no time to breathe."

"I still am." Arthur admitted, "But my boss seems intent with me training you into a full-matured S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. As such, he asked that I try to get to know you better, and for you to do the same for me."

Katie smiled.

"Lucky me." She said, "So…you're now ordered to tell me anything I want to, correct?"

"Yes." Arthur nodded.

"Then before I get to know you," Katie told him, "Why don't we talk about the rest of the team?"

"You realize you could ask them about it." Arthur said.

"True." Katie agreed, "But I'd like to hear your thoughts on them along with any past experiences or relationships you might've had prior to this team. It could help to show me what kind of a leader you are."

Arthur sighed, taking another sip of beer as he looked at her.

"Agent Faye Anne Carter said the same thing to me when my boss gave me this order." Arthur said, "She seems also to trust you more than I do, and I hope she's right."

"I noticed." Katie pointed out, "So what's her story? She seems nice and all, but she's almost at your level of seriousness at the same time."

"Two reasons," Arthur explained, "One is that she's an orphan, just like you. She grew up moving from orphanage to orphanage, wanting to do something with her life. Then around age 14, she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. after much vigorous training and bettering of herself in that time she was growing up."

"I have a similar story." Katie said, "Perhaps I'll tell you when you finish telling me about the others from your side."

"I hope I'll get to hear it." Arthur noted, "The second reason why Faye is sometimes so mature is that she hates the nickname most other agents gave her."

"What nickname is that?" Katie asked.

"You familiar with Peggy Carter?"

"Isn't that the name of Captain America's girlfriend during World War II? Wait! Are they both…"

"No." Arthur answered, "No relation whatsoever. But everybody started nicknaming her Agent Carter because it sounded funny. Of course, Peggy Carter had things to live and fight for outside of her job even after Rogers disappeared. Faye doesn't have anything outside of her job."

He took another swing of beer before looking back at her.

"Now Agent Jessica Smith is another story." He said, "Her father left her mother sometime before Jessica was born. Nobody knows why, but despite having only one parent, Jessica grew up to be one of our best agents here. She made an impression on S.H.I.E.L.D. when they were looking for Tony Stark when he built his first Iron Man armor while being held in Afghanistan. Jessica had joined the military by that point and was on a mission in Al-Qaeda, when the team was ambushed and she was taken in."

He took another sip of beer as Katie did the same.

"From there." Arthur continued, "The terrorists tortured and killed her teammates one by one, trying to get information out of them. Eventually, Jessica was the last one left, but refused to break. The terrorists decided to hold her ransom, and continued to torture her with many different techniques from the Stark Weapons that they had been supplied with from the Ten Rings organization. But Jessica didn't break, and she didn't give them the satisfaction of showing fear. It paid off when the S.H.I.E.L.D. team looking for info on Stark stormed the place, and Jessica was freed. She then killed the leader of the terrorist squad by snapping his neck, and caught the first ride back with the team. S.H.I.E.L.D. was so impressed that they gave her a job, and that's how she ended up where she is now."

"And what does that tell you about her?" Katie asked.

Arthur shrugged.

"It tells me she's a strong woman who handles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder pretty efficiently." Arthur stated.

….

_**Meanwhile, back at the Spec Ops Plane…**_

Jessica sat in one of the fold-out chairs that the plane had come with (she didn't know why, but she imagined it was for a good reason). She often enjoyed quiet times like this. She looked to the left side to see Bruce and Sabrina sitting in their own lounge chairs, chatting it up. Nearby, Faye was doing some push-ups, dressed in only a tank-top and black pants.

Jessica was glad the call to Fury worked out. Fury had promised he'd try to make Arthur more open to talking with the rest of his team, and it seemed to pay off. Jessica didn't have any leads on what could be wrong here, but she still felt that Faye would probably be the one to reveal it when the time came. Jessica would have to train herself to make sure she was ready for that day.

Suddenly, she heard Bruce calling out to her.

"Hey, Jessica!" He said, "How much longer do we have to wait?"

Jessica was about to respond, when two hands emerged from the nearby bushes and grabbed her from behind. There was a sound of a car screeching out of control, followed by an explosion nearby as the agents went to try and help her. Fortunately, Jessica's reflexes kicked in and she grabbed one of the arms, and used her weight to flip whoever it was over her body, and slam them onto the ground on their back.

Quickly grabbing him by the neck, Jessica saw it was a somewhat young police officer, with curly black hair.

"Jessica…" The man said, in an almost creepy singing voice, "He's coming for you. The Purple Man is coming back for you."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Jessica asked, "What Purple Man?! Who are you?!"

Before she could get her answers, the man quickly took Jessica's gun from her, and pointed it at his own head.

"WAIT!" Jessica begged.

However, her demands were met by deaf ears as the man pulled the trigger, ending his own life. Everyone looked in horror as Jessica quietly took her gun back, and put it back where it belonged.

"What the hell was that?!" Bruce asked.

"Well, the writer needed some way to get me to come over here, didn't he?" A new voice asked.

Faye and Jessica got into defensive positions as Bruce held Sabrina tightly, preparing for whatever came next. He wasn't a fighter, but neither was Sabrina and he still felt he should do something to help protect the team. Everyone watched as a man emerged from the shrubbery. He wore a purple coat, pants, shirt and shoes. But the most disturbing part was that the man's entire body was purple. His skin, his eyes, everything. Besides those noticeable features, the man's hair was slicked downwards and he had hints of beard stubble on his face.

"Oh, stop trying to pretend that you can take me." The newcomer said, "I'm a man whose body is entirely purple. That should tell you that you can't even hope to stand up to me unless you get some incredible deus-ex-machina by the end of this story. Well, you might, but I can't tell since I'm not the writer. So just stand down for now."

Suddenly, the four agents suddenly got out of their defensive positions, and just stood there silently.

"Much better." The man said, "Now, my name is The Purple Man. I wanted Officer Brian here to track down someone named Jessica for me, but he failed to do so. However, I'm willing to bet one of you here has the name Jessica somewhere in your identity, so whoever it is, please step forward."

Jessica suddenly found herself involuntarily walking towards the so-called Purple Man against her will. Faye looked like she was struggling to move, but her body wouldn't let her. The Purple Man must've noticed because he was smiling.

"Oh, look at the little agent trying to play it rough." He said, "I'm not going to kill all of you, (and believe me, I can,) because killing you like this so early on would be cheap drama compared to what I have planned for your friend here. Besides, if I did that, then the writer would have to find new people to submit characters for, and that would take forever and ruin his reputation. Instead, I want you to look at me as if I'm your best friend showing you the time of your lives."

Faye, Bruce, and Jessica suddenly felt their lips turning into a smile against their own will.

"Mm." Purple Man noted, "Close enough. Now back to the business at hand."

He looked at the girl in front of him.

"Now then, little S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent," He said, "Tell me your name. And not a silly made up one like a codename or a double-oh number. Tell me your real name."

"Jessica." Jessica said, not knowing why she said it, "Jessica Smith."

"Jessica Smith." The Purple Man said, thinking, "Oh, I remember you! You were in that hostage video a couple years ago! That must've been something really tragic to go through, wasn't it?"

"Yes." Jessica said, not knowing why she was telling this man all of these things, "It was."

"But you didn't tell them anything."

"No."

"So S.H.I.E.L.D. must've picked you up as a new recruit then." The Purple Man guessed, as Jessica nodded, "Interesting. Well, Jessica, I'm afraid this is the point where your will finally breaks. Turn around."

Jessica did so, as The Purple Man put his hand on her shoulder.

"Now, Jessica," He said, "I was going to visit an old friend and have some fun with her, but then I realized; I've been out of the public eye for quite a while now. It might surprise you to hear this, but I rather liked being retired for a while. But retirement has lost its charm on me, so I'm getting back in the game now. I'm going to need some extra protection though, and you seem like the right girl for the job."

Jessica continued to struggle to run away, but it was useless.

"Now," The Purple Man said, "I know that this next part is going to be upsetting for you, but it's necessary to remind everyone how much of a villain I am and how easily I can break you if I wanted to. This chapter may be about you, Jessica, but it's my time."

He nodded, tilting his head to the right.

"And look at that, Jessica." He pointed out, "It's your worst nightmare come to life."

Jessica turned and to her horror, suddenly found herself back in Al-Qaeda again. She was now dressed back in the same torn and worn military clothes she had been wearing upon being captured, and saw her team dead at the hands of the terrorists. Except now she was chained to a wall and watching her current S.H.I.E.L.D. teammates being picked off one-by-one by the armed forces.

"NOOOO!" Jessica screamed, feeling an incredible amount of mental pain to her very being course through her body, "OH GOD!"

She broke and began crying. Little did she know this was not real and in reality, she was just standing there sobbing away as The Purple Man stood nearby grinning as he watched the agent break down.

"Hm," He grinned, "One of my many powers, Jessica. I can also make you see what I want you to. Of course, I only wish I could see it myself…"

"Aahh-haa!" Jessica cried.

"But I can't. I guess that's not how this little plot device works."

"Noooo!" Jessica sobbed, "Ggg!"

"So," The Purple Man continued, "I have to…"

He stopped, noticing Jessica was still crying.

"Jessica, please be quiet." He said, "You're annoying me already and it's only page six. Please stop crying. It's annoying me."

Suddenly, Jessica found herself no longer crying instead remaining silent.

"Much better." The Purple Man noted, "I have to go now with you and do something violent and chaotic as it is my destiny to do so. You are going to come with me and do as I tell you, and afterwards you and I are going to have a final confrontation. Is that understood?"

Jessica nodded her head.

"Wonderful…" He said, turning back to the other three agents, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I'm not done with you yet. But this part of the story doesn't need you with us. So instead, you will stand there thinking of me as I take Jessica away from you. Once we're gone, you will be unable to track us. Don't worry, I'll make my presence known to you when I feel like it and you can come up with your ridiculous spy method of a convoluted way to stop me and save Jessica."

The group stood there and nodded.

He grabbed Jessica's hand and led her away into his car before driving off.

….

_**Soon, Washington DC, Joss's Cabin Bar…**_

"I honestly believe that Bruce and Sabrina are good S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," Arthur told Katie, "They just need proper motivation and skills just like you do."

"And here I was hoping that you would forget about that." Katie said.

"I'm serious, Katie." Arthur said, "I'm going to be honest with you. I'm impressed that you actually took this opportunity to ask questions about this team personally that doesn't seem to be in a way that could make you out to be a spy. But there's something wrong with you. Something must've happened to you to make you obsessed with all these things and if you tell me, I'll tell you everything you want to know within the obvious S.H.I.E.L.D. standards. But I need to know this if we're to trust each other."

Katie sighed and took another swing of beer.

"Arthur," Katie said, "Before I tell you. I need to know your backstory first. If I'm to trust you."

Arthur opened his mouth but was cut off by his phone ringing. Taking it out, he answered.

"Hello?" He asked.

"ARTHUR!" Faye's voice screamed, "Jessica's gone!"

"What?!" Arthur demanded.

"Jessica's gone." Faye repeated, "We were all hanging out in the forest by the plane, and some guy who was entirely purple came out and took Jessica!"

"And nobody stopped her?!" Arthur asked amazed.

"No! That's just it!" Faye explained, "He had some kind of control over us! We're trying to track her down, but we can't seem to find her!"

"Okay." Arthur stated, "I'm on my way."

He called out to their waiter.

"Excuse me, Ma'am!" He asked, "We'll have the check now, please. And if you could tell the valet to bring my car around as soon as possible, that would be great, thank you."

He looked at Katie.

"Looks like we'll have to finish after we get Jessica back." Arthur sighed.

"What kind of person could take Jessica like that?!" Katie asked.

"The kind that people like us should be afraid of." Arthur said, getting his wallet out.

….

_**Las Vegas, Nevada…**_

In a lone clothing store, a woman was preparing a very bright red dress when two people walked in. One was completely colored purple and the other was a young woman with short jet fire hair.

"Ah." The Purple Man said, "Splendid. From DC to Vegas in one quick jump cut. Thank you little plot device."

He looked at the woman behind the counter, his purple eyes almost piercing into hers.

"Ma'am." He said, "I know you have that made for some important nobody who won't show up in this chapter, but my friend here needs to look deadly and amazing at the same time, so if you could just give us the dress for free with some heels to go with it, and not call the police on us, it'd be much appreciated."

The Woman nodded almost robotically and went to go and find a pair of shoes to match.

….

_**Later, the Spec-Ops Plane…**_

With Jessica not available, Faye was left to fly the plane. She wasn't as skilled as Jessica was, but she knew how to get the job done.

Bruce and Sabrina were unable to track down the two, but for some reason, only Katie could see the controls on the blips so whilst she put in the orders as Sabrina and Bruce gave her, Arthur was holding to get in contact with a high-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who might know some things about this so-called 'Purple Man.'

Arthur had been waiting for five minutes when Katie walked in holding a bunch of papers in a folder.

"Here it is." She declared, "All the stuff we'll need to track them down. Who are you calling?"

"Someone who might know more about this 'Purple Man.' Arthur said.

Suddenly, the TV monitor turned on revealing the interior of another S.H.I.E.L.D. Plane. There were two people standing there. One was a man wearing a fancy black-and-white tux with a red tie. His hair was orange and short, almost a buzz cut. Standing next to him was a young woman with long brown hair and eyes wearing a long-sleeved purple T-Shirt and black pants, typing away on the laptop.

"Ah." The man said, "Agent Williams. How's life treating you."

"Not in the mood, Coulson." Arthur said, "One of my agents has gone missing and I need any information you have on any cases S.H.I.E.L.D. has had regarding a 'Purple Man.'"

"Already on it." The woman next to Coulson said.

"I'm sorry, who's this?" Arthur asked.

"Oh," Coulson said, "I'm sorry. How rude of me. Skye, this is Agent Arthur Williams. Arthur, Skye. Skye, Skye's a consultant I picked up who had ties to the Rising Tide yet is quickly becoming our team's best asset. Skye, Arthur here is one of the best Level 5 Agents and the only one to actually beat Grant Ward during the yearly S.H.I.E.L.D. Marathon Run a few years ago. Fury moved him to Level 7 to give him his own team recently."

Skye looked at Arthur amazed.

"Wait." She said, "You beat Ward?! In a track race?!"

"Wait!" Katie said, "You were a former member of the Rising Tide?!"

"I was." Skye answered, "But I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. because it felt like the right thing to do. It's amazing how much more benefits you get here than you do for the Rising Tide…"

She stopped and looked confused.

"I'm sorry." She said, "I don't appear to know you."

"Oh," Katie said, realizing she had forgotten to introduce herself, "I'm Katie Sheila. I actually tried joining the Rising Tide myself but Arthur here stopped me and S.H.I.E.L.D. had me join on as a protégé to him."

"Small world." Skye said, finishing typing away at her tablet, "Okay. Info's sent over. So you'll have to tell me how you beat Ward. You didn't use steroids or anything, did you."

"No." Arthur said, "But Ward accused me of the same thing."

"He was almost on Captain America level of athleticism, you know." Coulson told Skye, "But not quite. There is no one like Steve Rogers, after all…"

"Okay," Arthur said, "This call has extended past the needed time. But it was nice to hear from you again, Agent Coulson."

"Likewise, Agent Williams." Coulson replied, "I hope to hear more from you and your team in the near-future."

"Williams out." Arthur said, turning off the communication, and opening the files that Coulson had given him.

"Who's Grant Ward?" Katie asked.

Arthur sighed.

"Grant Ward is one of the world's biggest asses on the planet." Arthur said, "This stays between you and me. Personally, I think Ward secretly wishes that he was leading this team now whilst I was in his position."

"What makes him different than you?" Katie asked, "Sounds like you two should be brothers."

"No." Arthur said, "Ward's different from me because I just admitted my thoughts about him on my own account without anyone telling me."

Katie was internally shocked. He admitted something to her freely! Did this mean…"

"Now…" Arthur said, sending an extra copy to Katie's phone, "Let's go over these little pieces of info and see if we can't find anything worth of value to be played against this 'Purple Man…'"

…...

_**Soon…**_

Once the two had looked over enough information, the rest of the team met in Arthur's office to discuss what they knew.

"Okay," Arthur said, "Here's what we have. Zebediah Killgrave, also known as The Purple Man, was a former spy for the Russian Military. His parents were part of Leviathan, but sent him away quickly when the organization after the fall of the organization following the days of Peggy Carter's rise in the SSR after her secret work for Howard Stark."

He pressed his table and instantly, a figure of a young normal-looking Purple Man appeared in holographic form.

"After the fall," Arthur continued, "Killgrave escaped to America, living under the ideals until he learned of his true heritage. Sometime during his mid-twenties, he attempted to break into the then-recently built S.H.I.E.L.D. to try and steal some chemicals. However, Agent Carter knew of his betrayal and shot him causing him to get sprayed with a bunch of unknown gas that he was developing, supposedly leaving him for dead. But that was not the case."

He pressed another button and a new holographic image of the purple-skinned ex-spy appeared.

"He somehow survived, and gained the power to control other people." Arthur said, "He apparently used these powers to commit robberies and even ruin the life of another woman named Jessica Jones."

"The guy who shot himself said he was looking for Jessica." Faye said.

"Correct." Arthur nodded, "Killgrave eventually gave up, but it seems like he wants to make a comeback of sorts. He thought he would find Jessica Jones, but found our Jessica instead and decided to take her hostage."

"How do you know that?" Bruce asked.

Arthur pressed another button and instantly an image of The Purple Man appeared on the holograms. He was in what appeared to be a Las Vegas Casino, but what caught their attention was the woman wearing a dress she wouldn't be caught in, with short jet fire hair and shades walking next to him.

"This just came in today." Arthur explained, "So we have to move if we want to save our Jessica."

"How do we beat a man who can control you?" Sabrina asked.

Arthur closed the holograms and tossed her a file which she caught.

"Everything in there is about how Killgrave's powers work." Arthur explained, "I'm counting on you and Bruce to look at it and try to uncover what you can in regards to negating his effects, so we can use it against him."

He looked at them seriously.

"Do you think we can do it?" He asked.

The two scientists looked at each other.

"I'm not sure." Sabrina admitted, "We've never come up against anything like this before."

"But we'll try our best." Bruce added.

Arthur couldn't help but smile at his team's determination.

"Well then, I wish you the best of luck." He told them, "Dismissed."

….

_**Las Vegas…**_

The Purple Man strode into the room he had stolen from the hotel. Around his arms were two beautiful women in very revealing swimwear. Jessica followed behind him as his obedient bodyguard.

"The problem is," Killgrave pointed out, "Trying to do something that will catch their attention. I don't want to catch the attention of all those little pointless guest-stars, so I have to do something horrible that will shock the readers, any person with power who reads this story, and of course, your team, Jessica."

Jessica closed the door behind them as he stared at the two women.

"Well, ladies." He said, "Let's put on a show for Jessica. Shall we?"

…

_**The Spec Ops Plane…**_

"I think…" Sabrina smiled, "I think I got it!"

Bruce looked at her amazed.

"What is it?!" He asked.

"Look at this old video I found of Killgrave," Sabrina said, pulling up an holographic video file of the Purple Man controlling others, "Watch what happens when he breathes and I zoom in."

She zoomed in to about a sub-atom level and the two watched as the purple man breathed out. The molecules in his breath suddenly changed to a color of purple and they watched as the trail went around the area.

"So that's how he does it then?" Bruce asked, "Through basically breathing."

"I think it's more about that his body gives off a kind of pheromone that allows him to control others as long as he stays conscious," Sabrina said, "But yes, that could be another way of looking at it. You catch on quickly, Bruce. You sound like you could've been a biologist in another life like me."

"True." Bruce joked, "But then you'd probably be the one with two PhD's in engineering."

Sabrina chuckled and they looked at each other.

"So…um…" Sabrina asked, "What now?"

"I think I can work up a mini-filtering system that'll allow us to counteract Purple Man's toxins with your help in the chemicals he's using." Bruce explained, "If we work quick enough, I should be able to finish enough for all of us by the time we land."

"You can do that?" Sabrina asked.

"Let me put it to you like this," Bruce said, "You know Hank Pym?"

Sabrina's eyes widened.

"Hank Pym?!" She asked, "As in the Hank Pym who made that shrinking technology?!"

"Wrote my first S.H.I.E.L.D. term paper on the guy. He practically visited a few days later for a lecture and spoke to me about how much he enjoyed my paper."

"How come I didn't hear about this?" Sabrina asked.

Bruce shrugged.

"Don't know how you did." He responded, "It was all over the announcement board."

She shrugged.

"Then I guess perhaps I'll have to keep better informed next time."

"True." Bruce nodded, "But right now, let's focus on getting our friend back."

…

_**Las Vegas…**_

Killgrave returned a few minutes later with a shopping back in his hands. Inside, there was a mini electronic disco ball, a CD/Radio Player, and an album that Jessica couldn't make out due to the inherit darkness Purple Man left her and the other two girls in.

"I hope you like this music." Killgrave said, "Because I paid good money for this. Actually, I didn't pay anything, but I went through a…considerable amount of effort making police officers fire on themselves just to get this for you."

Purple Man smiled as he plugged the CD player and disco ball into the wall outlets. Instantly, the disco ball lit up and began spinning around as a reflection of different colors began swirling around the room.

He then put in the CD and a 1980's disco song began playing.

…

_**Soon, The Spec Ops Plane…**_

"We're coming up over Las Vegas." Faye told the others, "Killgrave's here. Reports have said he headed into the building I'm putting us down over right now."

"Good thing." Bruce said, handing them the palm-sized filter devices, "These things should redact Killgrave's powers, just be careful not to let him onto what we're actually doing. These things are our only defense against him."

"Noted." Arthur said, turning to Katie, "Ms. Sheila. You are going to be our entrance key into Killgrave's room. I will be using this…" He pulled out what looked like some kind of high-tech belt, "This is called the light-shift belt. Comes with the parks of being head of this team. This will allow me to get into Killgrave's room undetected, but it won't hide me opening the door. That's where you come in, Katie."

Katie looked at him.

"You have to make Killgrave keep that door open long enough for me to sneak in. I hand this to Jessica and it's done."

"So what do I do?" Katie asked.

….

_**Las Vegas…**_

"Jessica." Killgrave said, as the two women clung tightly to both sides of his body, "These women are happy with me, aren't they?"

"Yes, master." Jessica said in an almost hypnotic-like voice.

"And you feel…safe with me, don't you?"

"Yes, master." Jessica said, again against her will.

Every fiber in her body wanted to run and get away from this, but Killgrave's influence over her was too strong unfortunately.

"Jessica…" Purple Man said, "Come over here and tell me that you love me."

Jessica took a few steps forward, but stopped when there was a knocking at the door.

Killgrave frowned as he pushed the two women to the side and turned off the CD Player.

Throwing the door open, he was met with a young woman dressed in a hotel lobbygirl's outfit. She looked to be around twenty-years-old with long brown hair and blue eyes.

"Sir?" She asked, "Are you having any problems with the toilet in your room?"

"I beg your pardon?" Killgrave asked, "The toilets in your room. Do you have any problems with them?"

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Katie." The Girl answered, "Katie Sheila."

"Why are you here, Katie?" Purple Man asked.

"I need to inspect the toilets, sir." Katie said, "We were supposed to inspect them today, but there was something that happened and the rest of the staff forgot to do so."

"I see…" Purple Man said, rubbing his chin, "Is there anything else you would like to tell me, Ms. Sheila?"

"Yes," She said, "It also asks that you requested room service a while ago."

"Did I?" Purple Man questioned, keeping the door open with the lock as he stepped outside to read the sheet of paper that Katie was taking out of her pocket.

He looked over the list and shrugged.

"Well," He said, "It does sound like something I ordered. But I suppose just didn't feel like it so you can be a good little helper and cancel it, okay?"

"Okay." Katie said, "Is there anything else you require, sir?"

The Purple Man looked at her giving her an uncomfortable feeling. Still, she had to hide it as best she could and out of her, Bruce, and Sabrina, Katie figured she was the best of lying from the "three rookies" as she thought of themselves as.

The Purple Man looked her up and down before smiling.

"No." He said, "I do not believe that there is anything left now. You may go."

"Thank you." Katie said, walking off.

Purple Man nodded and went back inside. He closed The Door and listened carefully. Suddenly, he heard the faintest sound of a footstep coming from right next to him. He punched at the empty space, but hit something blocking his fist between him and the wall. There was a groan and the sound of someone collapsing on the ground.

"So…" He said, "It appears that deus-ex-machina paid off after all."

He grabbed the invisible person by the head and held him in place. He then nodded towards Jessica.

"This is why I brought you here, Jessica." He smiled, "You're going to kill this intruder and then tell me who he is."

Jessica walked up blankly and looked at The Purple Man grasping with invisible air without any signs of life in her eyes.

"Jessica," The Purple Man sighed, "If you're having trouble deciding how to kill him, just punch him in the chest and literally rip out his heart. It's what I would do if I was writing this. DO IT NOW!"

Jessica gave a tilt of her head, and pulled her fist back…

Only to have it slam into the face of The Purple Man, causing him to release the person he was holding.

"You mother…" Jessica swore, spinning around and kicking him hard in the chest.

The kick was so hard that The Purple Man crashed through the door of his apartment and into the hallway where he slammed violently into the wall.

He groaned, trying to get up, but Jessica marched straight over to him and kicked him in the chest, knocking all the air out of him.

"You sneaky old manipulator!" Purple Man declared, "If it weren't for your friend, I'd…"

Jessica simply responded with a punch to the head, she then took out her gun and pointed it at his head.

"You think you're still pretty tough?!" She demanded, "Well, let's see if you're still purple when I shoot a bullet in your head!"

"Jessica, don't!" Arthur pleaded, fading back into view, "Don't kill him!"

"He's tortured me, had me relieve the worst day of my life, kept me as his pet…" Jessica told him, before looking at her 'boss,' "Why shouldn't I?! Isn't that how you solve things?!"

"Jessica!" Arthur pleaded, "I'm sorry. Something happened to me today. I realized that I'm not perfect. None of us are. But I learned that if I try hard enough, I can change as a person. I trust you, Jessica. Just as S.H.I.E.L.D. always has. So I beg you not to kill him! He's down and now we can imprison him for the rest of his life so nobody can be controlled by him anymore! Please…"

Jessica looked at Arthur amazed. At first she thought it was because Purple Man had him under his control, but then Arthur showed her a small air-filtering-like device he had in his pocket.

"This counteracts The Purple Man's mind control effects." Arthur said, "I slipped one into your gun holster."

Jessica looked and saw to her amazement that there was indeed one in there as well.

"I can't order you, Jessica." Arthur stated, "But I can only ask you not to kill him. That's all I ask. Let S.H.I.E.L.D. take care of this. Just like they did when they asked you to trust them. Please."

Jessica looked at him, and then back at the unconscious Purple Man. Slowly, she lowered her gun and put it back in her holster.

"Get the S.H.I.E.L.D. Team down here as quick as possible." She said, "I'm going back to the plane."

"Take as much time as you need." Arthur said, as he handcuffed The Purple Man."

….

_**Later, Back on the Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Jessica sighed a heavy relief as she sat back down in the plane's cockpit. It felt good now that she was back in her S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform and someplace where she felt some kind of peace.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." She said.

The door opened and Arthur walked up between her seat and the co-captain's.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked.

"Go right ahead." Jessica said.

He sat down and nodded.

"So what happened to The Purple Man?" She asked.

"He's within S.H.I.E.L.D. custody now." Arthur said, "We got him trapped in an air-tight tank with enough oxygen for him to breathe. He's being taken to the Fridge where he'll spend the rest of his days locked up in there."

"Good to hear." She said.

"That was an impressive way of taking him down after I administered you the antidote." Arthur said.

"Why didn't you do it on your own, then?" Jessica questioned.

"Honestly?" Arthur replied, "It felt like something you had to do in order to refocus yourself again."

"You could've told me."

"Yes, but that would've given my location away and me and Katie would more than likely be dead."

"So what did he make you see?" Arthur asked.

Jessica stared at him confused.

"When you were threatening to shoot him, you said he tortured you. What did he make you see?"

Jessica sighed.

"He made me see the day I was still in the military and my entire team was killed." She explained, "Except he had this team being slaughtered as well. I guess my brain just…it almost gave up."

"I think that's a common effect of all his victims."

"Cut to the chase, Arthur." Jessica demanded, "Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?"

Arthur looked at the ground.

"I admit I was wrong about my evaluations of the team." He said, "I finished the talk with Katie earlier…"

….

_**Earlier, Washington DC, Joss's Cabin Bar**_

_**Post-Purple Man Capture…**_

Arthur looked at Katie from across the table. Soon a waitress came by with their drinks.

"So…" Katie asked, "We gonna finish this chat?"

"Yes," Arthur explained, "I ask you a question about your life, you tell me about yours, and then I do the same for you. We each learn something about each other. You get a chance to know more about me personally, and I get to know more about you."

"Whatever." Katie announced.

"Good." Arthur said, "Now, tell me about your childhood. What was it like? Who were your parents?"

Katie gave a small laugh, but it quickly turned into a frown.

"I didn't have any."

Arthur looked at her confused, as she sighed and took a swing of her beer.

"I grew up moving from orphanage to orphanage with nobody to look after me." Katie continued, as Arthur actually became interested, "I had nothing to go on. No heirlooms, no documents, not even my first orphanage that adopted me never saw anybody drop me off. I just arrived then and there on the doorstep one evening out in the cold. You'd think that when I was eventually adopted along with my sister Tracy."

"How did you know you were sisters, then?" Arthur asked.

"Because I was delivered to the orphanage about 3 hours after she had been brought in." Katie told him, "It was the only relationship I felt I had with her. Either way, when we were both ten, we were brought into a family, which only made things much worst."

"They hit you?" Arthur asked.

"Both of us." Katie explained, "They made us do all the work for them and our only reward was being able to be fed and clothed. When they slept, however, that's when I would sneak down with Tracy and we would watch these old action movies I like so much. Eventually, I was inspired to sneak out and leave the home with my sister. I began practicing push-ups, pull-ups, and every kind of workout to train my body and mind so we could leave. After 3 years, we were ready."

"So what happened?" Arthur asked.

Katie looked down at her drink lamenting the memory.

"I made a mistake." She admitted, "I didn't plan good enough and Tracy was caught. I tried to save her, but she forced me away, saying I had to go on without her. So I managed to outrun my adoptive mother until I hid inside a homeless shelter. The following day I went back to try and see if I could break her out, but by the time I got there, I saw some police were waiting outside and overheard my adoptive parents talking about how one of their adoptive daughters had twisted the neck of the other one, and then fled."

Arthur looked at her shocked.

"So I decided to redeem myself by becoming a vigilante. But when I heard of the Rising Tide and their plans to uncover "the secrets hidden from the rest of the world," I thought it would be the thing I needed to finally put closure on my life."

She took a deep breath and looked at Arthur who was now completely filled with guilt by the story Katie had told.

"I'm sorry." Arthur apologized, "I'm so sorry. I…I didn't realize."

"So Arthur Williams finally admits he was wrong about something." Katie said, "So what's your story then? I did my part, now you do yours. What made you join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Arthur looked at his own drink and then back at Katie.

"I can't remember when there wasn't a time I didn't want to be an officer, or someone who upheld the law." Arthur admitted, "Other than in the summer of 1997 when I wanted to be Buzz Lightyear."

"Mm." Katie said, nodding her head.

"Anyways," Arthur pointed out, "My Dad served in Vietnam before taking up a position at the CIA. Apparently, he did some black-ops stuff that wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.-like operations, but they were pretty high-profile. One night he didn't come back and Mom learned he'd died in battle while she was pregnant with me. Then I was born and she had me growing up watching these old Captain America Documentaries. I guess the thing that set me on this path though was when my grandfather on Mom's side of the family brought me a Captain America-styled pedal car when I was five. It was one of the best gifts I remember getting as a kid."

"Sounds like a great guy." Katie said.

"Actually he ended up stealing it for me." Arthur said.

"What a bastard." Katie corrected.

Arthur nodded.

"Still," Arthur pointed out, "When I was in the seat of that car…I felt like I had a sense of knowing the difference between right and wrong. I felt like I could prove that not every law enforcement fell into corruption, and that no matter what, I could help defend people no matter the cost. So that's part of the reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. When I left for the academy… that was the last time I saw Mom before she died a year later from cancer which resulted in dizziness and ended with her getting into a car crash. She was so proud of me when I left. I feel she might be now."

Katie nodded.

"Shame about what happened, though."

"It was her time." Arthur said.

"No." Katie explained, "I mean about you."

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked.

"I think you would've made a good Buzz Lightyear." She smiled.

Arthur actually laughed at that comment. Suddenly, the black and white areas of the world he lived in almost seemed to fade away, and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Arthur actually felt happy. More than that, he actually felt like he could trust Katie now. She had a rough childhood, so it wasn't her fault completely that she didn't know proper training.

But perhaps…with a little bit of help, just maybe…

"Let's get the bill and leave." Arthur said, calling for their waitress, "There's something I'd like to show you."

…...

_**Later, Back on the Spec Ops Plane…**_

Once the two had paid and were back on the plane, Arthur took Katie to the bathroom and had her look at herself in the mirror.

"What do you see?" Arthur asked her.

Katie looked at sighed.

"Just us." She answered simply.

"No." Arthur corrected, "Tell me what you see of yourself in there."

Katie looked a bit harder, but gave up.

"Just a girl who's life has been nothing but a continuous avalanche of crap that keeps rolling downhill and getting bigger." She answered.

"On the contrary." Arthur answered, "I see someone there who has much potential."

"Are you drinking the Kool-Aid?" Katie asked.

"No." Arthur told her, "I'm honestly looking at someone with actual motivation for joining S.H.I.E.L.D., but whose life hasn't allowed her to have the proper training required to do so. I actually see a young woman filled with determination, love, and potential as an agent."

"So what are you saying?"

"Did you ever see the film _Trading Places_?" Arthur asked.

Katie shook her head.

"How about _Big_?" Arthur asked.

"No." Katie answered.

"Okay," Arthur said, "My point is, if you're willing, in addition to our usual assignments, I'll give you the chance to take time off to train and become a real S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent."

"Oh," Katie said, "So then just like _The Karate Kid_?"

"Don't know that one." Arthur pointed out.

"That's the one where Ralph Macchio gets trained by Pat Morita to become a martial arts master."

Arthur felt uncomfortable, but nodded.

"Yes." He agreed, "You could say that."

He looked at her.

"Are you interested?" He asked.

"Oh, yes." Katie smiled, "Just one question."

"Shoot."

"How do you know those films?"

"You can ask Jessica tomorrow when she begins to train you."

Katie froze.

"What?" She asked.

….

_**Now…**_

"Wait," Jessica asked, "Why did you say that to her? Why do you think I would agree to this?"

"Because I know it was you, Jessica." Arthur said, "I know you contacted Fury."

Jessica froze but Arthur nodded.

"It's all right." He said, "I don't know how you did it, but you must've had some high friends who owed you a couple of favors and I think it's safe to assume you used them to talk with Fury and convince him to have a sit-down with me and Katie."

"You're not upset?" Jessica asked, amazed.

"No," Arthur told her, "Because I know you did it since without it I wouldn't stop being such an unbearable S.H.I.E.L.D. team leader. I'm actually glad you did it, and I'm not going to tell anyone as a result."

He looked at her seriously.

"That's why I came to thank you, Jessica." He said, "For making me realize that in order to us to be a team, we need to start acting like one."

He nodded.

"Well," He said, "I should go over to Bruce and Sabrina and apologize for intimidating them now."

"Arthur?" Jessica asked, stopping him, "Look…I admit I did it for Fury, but I also did it because…you seemed like a good person deep down. That's what Sabrina said she thought, anyways. Point being…if you want…you could do some one-on-one time with me so we could help you get better at acting more like a relaxed person."

Arthur thought about it and nodded.

"All right, then." He said, "I'll speak to you when I can. Thank you for the offer."

"You're welcome." She said.

He nodded and left her.

Jessica smiled to herself. At least she could tell Fury now the team had been making some progress. Plus, Arthur hadn't managed to find her true motivation for speaking with Fury, so she was safe for now. Not to mention that she would be training Katie now and it would definitely help to get her into shape.

Jessica knew she would have to watch herself more cautiously from here on out, but this was the first big step for the team, herself included.

….

_**Later…**_

Arthur sat down in his chair behind his desk, satisfied. He actually felt good about making amends and attempts to befriend his team now. He felt as if he could assess each member's strengths and weaknesses now more easily, and more effectively.

He was amazed. Had it really been this simple to work with others? By simply talking with them instead of just focusing on the mission at hand? Arthur felt guilty now about the way he had behaved in the past, but he felt if he could keep working on being a better person rather than an agent, he could really make a difference. Somewhere down the line when he was growing up, he abandoned any socialization with other people in order to train himself to be better. Now he was ready to train himself again but this time in a way that would make him more accepted among other agents.

As his eyes were about to shut, he heard a knock at his door.

"Come in." He said.

The door opened and Katie walked in.

"Can I join you?" She asked.

"Sure." Arthur said.

Katie sat down in the seat to the right in front of his desk. Arthur noticed she had a bag in her lap that she had brought with her when they first arrived on the plane.

"So I spoke with Jessica." She said, "That was very nice what you did for everyone. Even Faye."

"Thank you." Arthur said.

"But I understand you admitted that you could be a bit of a workaholic and needed help with that still." Katie finished.

"I did." Arthur sighed, "For as long as I can remember I've been training, bettering myself to be a better S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, and I…I don't know how to switch that work side of me off. I don't know how to do it."

Katie nodded and looked at his computer desk.

"Does this thing play DVD's?" She asked.

"Yeah." Arthur answered confused.

"Then I have the prescription." Katie smiled, opening the bag and showing Arthur the contents.

Arthur's eyes widened.

Inside were a truckload of DVD's. Everything Action-Film related from _The Expendables_, to _Die Hard_, to _Army of Darkness_, to more and more movies. Arthur was surprised it even all fit into the bag.

"Oh my god." He said, looking at it as if he were looking at the Fountain of Youth.

Katie brought the bag back and looked inside of it, sorting through the DVD's.

"Now these are all from my old adopted home which I took as I mentioned." She said, not stopping in her search, "So you won't hold anything against me, will you? I mean, it's not like they watched this stuff by the time I left.

"No…" Arthur replied, still trying to fathom how dedicated Katie was to her films, "I suppose not."

"Ah." Katie said, putting another hand inside, "Here we go."

With that she pulled two DVD's out. One was _James Bond: Goldfinger_ and the other was the _Indiana Jones Trilogy_.

"So which do you want?" She asked, "_Goldfinger_, or the _Indiana Jones Trilogy_?"

"Which one do you think I'll like?" Arthur asked.

"Can't help you with that?" Katie replied, "You need to decide for yourself. So…_Indiana Jones_, or _Goldfinger_?"

"Uh…" Arthur said, not sure which one, "_Goldfinger_, I guess."

"Good choice." Katie smiled as Arthur helped her put the DVD in.

….

_**Meanwhile, The Fridge…**_

Killgrave was waiting in his cell when a lone S.H.I.E.L.D. agent came in to look at the former spy-turned-supervillain.

"You know I'm not going to stay here forever." The Purple Man explained, not taking notice of the agent walking over to the controls, "I'm gonna have to break out sometime before the AKA: Jessica Jones series starts. So really this time I'm spending now is just…"

He stopped when the agent deactivated the gas. With no air, Killgrave suddenly began choking to death. He quickly fell to the ground, looking at the agent as if he were mentally begging him to stop. Then Killgrave fell unconscious and the agent opened the cell, quickly taking out a needle and sticking it into Killgrave's neck. After enough blood had been drained, the agent locked the cell again and reactivated the air supply.

The agent then walked off and went into a secluded closet, taking off his mask and calling someone up.

After three rings, the person at the other end picked up.

"Speak." A female voice instructed.

"I have The Purple Man's blood." The man said.

"Wonderful," The voice on the other end replied, "This will be instrumental in our plans. I will contact you later to inform you of who to drop it off with, so that we may begin the next phase of our operation. You are to await further instructions until then."

"Understood." The man said.

With that, he hung up.

**DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN! Well, there you have it! Purple Man's been captured, but what is going to be done with his blood now?! Well, if you've seen both **_**Captain America: The Winter Soldier**_** and the episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that followed, you can probably guess who the guys are discussing, but for those who don't, I won't spoil the ending for you. Be here next time though as the team does some undercover work looking into a MIA Agent from years ago, and Arthur begins his 'cooling down' sessions while Katie begins her maturity sessions. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. As always, reviews are appreciated. Again, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for fan-purposes only, so please don't sue! Oh, and no flames. **


	7. Hole in the Soul

**Hi, everyone. Welcome to another chapter of The Other Team. Sorry about the lateness, but I've been pretty busy with things here where I am now. Classes and certain disagreements with things have kept me busy and…well…unfortunately about a week ago…we lost a good man. In case you aren't aware, on Feburary 27****th**** of this year, actor Leonard Nimoy passed away. I remember last year I did a whole 80's sort-of tribute of action scenes for Harold Raimis's passing in my Avengers: Superior to us fanfic, and this one I had written to hit close to home in terms of how we look at life and growing old, and when news came of Leonard's death, I wanted to rewrite this part so it tied in with the infamous lines that became the theme of the original Star Trek Trilogy that are still remembered to this day. Sometimes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, while in other cases; sometimes the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. I'm taking this moment to get it out as I'm still recovering from the shock and sadness, but I always wanted to meet Leonard one day (I already met his successor Zachary Quinto one time, and no matter what anybody says, I don't think the legacy of Spock could be in better hands,) and it saddens me I will never be able to have had the chance to meet such a beloved iconic actor. So now, this chapter is also dedicated to the man who helped make Mr. Spock a household name and who helped inspire generations both now and will continue to until the end of time. I hope this chapter reminds us all to look at life and live it to its fullest and to always live for as long as we can. It's what Leonard would've wanted. On that note, this is unfortunately a shorter chapter, but I did try to flesh it out the best I could, and there are certain plot points that will be revisited in this story later on, so try to remember that. With that said, I come bringing another chapter that hopefully you'll all like. So with that said, let's jump into this latest part in the story. Oh, and as always, I own NOTHING except my OC's. This is for FAN-Purposes ONLY, so please don't sue! With that said, enjoy!**

_**Hammer Worldwide Systems, Los Angeles, California…**_

Justine Hammer was a much better CEO than her husband ever was.

Following the business with Ivan Vanko two years prior, Justine had taken over her husband's company as he was currently serving a good number of years in Seagate Prison, due to his part in aiding the Russian madman and almost destroying the Stark Expo, and the millions of lives that would have been lost if not for Stark's intervention.

Since then, Justine completely revamped Hammer Weapons Systems into Hammer Worldwide Systems. The company was no longer a weapon designing business, but rather a global network business, shipping out thousands of phones each day. Some would call this impossible, but even with Justin Hammer locked up in Seagate Prison, Justine was still a powerful woman with plenty of money and resources to get the job done.

Still, just because she owned the business, it didn't mean that she got bored with it every now and then.

Justine ran a hand through her black hair, the lines under her eyes showing a clear indication of constantly staying awake in order to sort out all this paperwork.

Suddenly, the doors to her office opened and in walked a young girl around 13 with strawberry-blonde hair and wearing a red business suit.

"Need any help, Mom?" Her daughter asked.

"No thank you, Sasha." Justine said, "I'm quite…"

Before she could finish, there was a large explosion that shook the entire building, causing both women to fall to their feet.

As they looked up, they realized two things. One was that the doors had been completely blown open and a fire was already blocking their way out. Second was that there was a new person in the room. She wore a full-body black latex bodysuit, a metal belt with different pouched, and a gun holster worn on her left side. She had short dark black hair and seemed to be around 30 or so, yet despite that had a pretty impressive figure even with the wrinkles on her face.

"You're coming with me." She said.

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur and Katie sat on the couch having finished their little movie marathon. Arthur had to admit it was pretty good. He felt the better of the two movies he had seen was _Goldfinger_. Katie told him this is what she would imagine S.H.I.E.L.D. should be like when she joined, and Arthur couldn't blame her for having a bit of disappointment when she found out it was otherwise. The only real problems Arthur had was how Sean Connery's Bond would be able to get away with so much property damage both public and private, and not be made to suffer a considerable amount of paperwork, instead being imminently invited to have lunch with The President of the United States, following the success of stopping Auric Goldfinger from blowing up Fort Knox despite the amount of damage he had done inside the vaults and over in Switzerland. Still he liked the performance and even admitted to Katie that for him it was like an adrenaline-fueled ride and even indulged in joining Katie whenever she repeated a line from the film.

Afterwards, they watched the Indiana Jones series. While Arthur thought there were some good ideas such as trying to create an action scene in the time of World War II, he felt it could've been done without having the supernatural elements added to it. One of the things he didn't like about World War II Propaganda stories was how they would exaggerate certain elements. A good example he told Katie was when he was a kid, he found his Dad had vinyl's of the old Captain America Radio Show following the victory over HYDRA back in World War II. When he listened to it, he became imminently disappointed with how the actor portraying Cap seemed too cocky to be someone who embodied the spirit of everything a person could be. Worst yet was the inaccuracy of having a Peggy Carter stand-in (named Betty Carver,) was portrayed as being a helpless woman who constantly relied on Cap to come in and save her. This was one of the reasons he appreciated _Goldfinger_ more than any of the Indy films since in that one, Bond had convinced Pussy Galore to help him with words rather than by force (although there were some action sequences where Bond fought her, but it didn't take anything away from the plot,) whereas the girls in the Indiana Jones movies seemed to usually end up relying on Indiana to bail them out.

Still, it was a good night, and Arthur admitted that he felt a little bit more better and relaxed after watching these films and even expressed interest in seeing more sometime.

Afterwards, he finished his paperwork and fell asleep on his desk.

He was woken up with a start early the next morning when his table communications began ringing.

Opening the link, he was met with a short greying hair and wearing an equally grey colored suit and stripped tie.

"Agent Blake." Arthur said, regaining his composure.

"Agent Williams." Blake replied, nodding, "How are you feeling?"

"Good." Arthur assured, rubbing his eyes, "Don't mind me. I was just closing my eyes while I had the chance to. Finished all the paperwork."

"Good thing." Blake said, "Because I have your next assignment being transmitted in. But I warn you, Williams; it may wake you up but it might disturb you at the same time. Good luck to you. Blake out."

Arthur nodded, as the information was transferred onto his table.

Then Arthur saw one of the images as his eyes widened, and he looked as if he had been kicked hard in the gut.

….

_**Later…**_

"I'm sorry," Katie asked, as the team stood in Arthur's office, "But what has you worked up so much about this case?"

"This woman." Arthur said, pulling up a larger hologram so the others could see.

It was a black and white image of a woman. She wore a full-body black latex bodysuit, a metal belt with different pouched, and a gun holster worn on her left side. She had short dark black hair and seemed to be around her mid-thirties, with wrinkles on her face, despite having an impressive body build.

"No…" Jessica said, "It can't be…"

"I'm afraid it is." Arthur said, "In case anybody else doesn't know, the woman in that image is Penny Gelt. This photo was taken earlier today at Hammer Worldwide Systems from their security footage. Apparently Ms. Gelt broke into the company and kidnapped current CEO Justine Hammer and her daughter Sasha. Intel says that the helicopter that picked them up was on autopilot and reports say a helicopter matching the same description as the one Gelt used was recently spotted in Rio. Specifically near the Tijuca Forest."

"So we're essentially going to the chopper." Katie said, "What's this all about that's got you all worked up, though?"

Arthur looked away regrettably for a bit as Katie now seemed really concerned.

"What?" She asked.

"I promised myself now that I'd let you in on all the details." Arthur said, "Katie…do you remember when Hill mentioned to you that I had an 'incident,' that had been completely omitted from my files?"

Katie nodded remembering what Hill had told her when Katie had been recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Well," Arthur sighed, pointing to the photo of Penny Gelt, "This woman is the incident. She's my first protégé."

Everyone looked astonished as Arthur looked at the ground regrettably.

"During the final months of my first year at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Arthur explained, "The World Security Council took interest in me and demanded that Fury consider giving me my own team. Fury said he'd give me a test first to see if I was worthy of leading one. Penny Gelt was assigned as my protégé, one of the brightest and toughest students we had at the time. Our mission was infiltrating a base in Egypt and recovering a new device that some bad guys there had stolen."

He closed his eyes trying to hold something back.

"Turns out they had found some kind of portal…a gateway to another dimension not unlike the Tesseract." Arthur said, "We were looking at it when there were reinforcements that arrived. I forgot to take them into account because I was busy on coordinating with my own team. One of them came at me with a knife while I was disabling the other and Penny…she…"

Arthur took a deep breath before continuing.

"She pushed herself and the guy into the portal." Arthur said, "She disappeared and the base collapsed. That's why I've been hesitant about being on a team. It's also one of the catalysts that made me want to push myself further. I wanted a Level 7 Position to be my own man, take on these cases without having to be overseen with pressure on me. I got Penny trapped wherever, and now I have to get her back."

"Arthur…" Katie said, speechless, "I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry."

Even the others had to admit, it was difficult to imagine Arthur making a mistake, let alone admit that he might've caused the death of another person and felt remorse over it.

"It's quite alright, Katie." Arthur said, "That was in the past. Unfortunately it seems Ms. Gelt has buried her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past as well. Therefore, it falls upon us to bring her in. We do this by the book; we must capture her whether she wants to be brought in or not. Anybody who does otherwise will answer to me. We only take the shot if there is no other option. Understood?"

The group nodded.

"Good." Arthur said, "Then here's the battle plan; Katie, you're assigned to be with Jessica. Jessica, I'm sorry that this'll be the first time you'll have to train with Katie, but I trust you to help her through this first mission so she knows proper combat and how to carry a gun. Understood?"

"I do, sir." Jessica responded.

"Good," He said, "So whilst we're out and about, Faye will be with me. We'll split up and cover the area of the forest. We need to catch Penny as quick as possible, and then ask her where the heck she has Justine and Sasha Hammer locked up in."

"And what about us?" Sabrina asked, "What will Bruce and I be doing while you're out and about?"

Arthur looked at her and sighed.

"You're going to try and figure out the most important question I have a feeling that Ms. Gelt won't be answering."

"Which is?" Bruce asked.

Arthur looked at the photo of Penny.

"You're going to try and discover why the hell she looks thirty-six years older in the three years since I last saw her."

….

_**Later, The Tijuca Forest, Rio…**_

The Area had been evacuated once Arthur had given the command and S.H.I.E.L.D. identification badge, so now the group was split up. Katie found herself now in a camouflage pants and shirt holding a special S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued rapid-fire gun, and trekking through the jungle with Jessica who was dressed in similar attire and carrying the same kind of gun. Normally, Katie would be excited and feel like she was in the movie Predator right now with all the tension coming about a mysterious force with unnatural abilities, but right now, she had her mind trained on the mission. The task was to get in, get Penny, and get the hell out of there.

Jessica had explained the gun to Katie. It was a newly-adapted model of the one created by two other S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents…Fitz and Simmons as she recalled. The original gun had been named the Night-Night Gun and was originally intended to put down people who had some unnatural abilities to sleep. This one had the option for stunning meta-humans, or normal people as well. Jessica had told her to remember that this gun was used in case of extreme emergencies, and Katie understood perfectly well. It seemed Arthur was intent on bringing his old protégé in to ensure that she would have another chance to put things right. Since Arthur had done this for Kate, she owed Penny that much.

Eventually, they finally came across the chopper which was empty. Arming their guns, the two women crouched down and crept over to the helicopter. Once close enough, they popped up and pointed their guns inside, only to find the transport was empty.

"Arthur?" Katie said, activating a walkie-talkie, "We've found the chopper, but it's empty. Do you copy, over?"

"Copy that." Arthur said, "We're still on the lookout for Penny. Rendezvous with us. Over?"

"10-4." Katie said.

With that, she shut the walkie-talkie off and began walking back along the path with Jessica. Truth be told, Jessica was impressed with Katie. She had no longer believed that Katie wasn't a spy looking into the team. She was proud of how far along she was coming. Of course, after this Katie would be tasked with the other basic S.H.I.E.L.D. tests to prove her worth to the organization. She only hoped Katie would be able to accomplish all of that without her help.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Arthur continued to walk along the path with Faye. He felt that he couldn't wait for the others to catch up, and began picking up speed. If there was ever one thing he regretted in S.H.I.E.L.D., it was how his mistake had ended up supposedly costing the life of a young and promising agent. Since then, he was determined not to make a mistake ever again.

As they turned a corner on a widing road of the trail they were on, Faye took this opportunity to speak with Arthur.

"You're handling this well, all things considered." She pointed out.

"Am I?" Arthur asked.

"You felt okay enough to admit you weren't the perfect agent we all thought you were, so that's something." Faye pointed out.

"It's not just that what's bothering me." Arthur said, stopping and looking away, "It's what happened to Penny. Last time I saw her she was young, but she looked as experienced as I was then. She had a whole future ahead of her, and I ended up taking that future away from her. Even if it wasn't me who knocked her into the portal, I'm still responsible for this current predicament."

He looked at the ground.

"What if my mistake changed her, Faye?" Arthur asked, "What if my actions are what caused her to do something this insane? Not to mention she managed to get through a series of high-paid security guards and systems. True, she was good, but nobody can be THAT perfect? What if something happened to her and she's changed physically as well? What am I supposed to do, Faye?"

He paused and realized he wasn't getting a response.

"Faye?" He asked.

He spun around and saw to his amazement that Faye was lying on the ground unconscious. Standing over her body was none other than Penny Gelt herself.

"You could ask me, Arthur." Penny suggested, sarcastically, "Even after all this time, you never asked me how I felt about the mission, or even shared such personal details about yourself with me."

"Penny…" Arthur declared, amazed, "Is it really you?!"

"Of course it's me, idiot." Penny spat, "You look good, Arthur. How long has it been since Egypt? Three years?"

"How did you get back?" Arthur asked, "Why do you look so older, and why have you kidnapped Justine Hammer and her daughter?"

"This is what I mean." Penny said, her sarcasm clear in her voice, "That's all you ever did, Arthur. Your priorities were always about your mission. Never to your team."

"I'm a different person now, Penny." Arthur assured, "But I believe deep down inside, you're still the brave and loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent I knew back then."

"Then your beliefs are sadly wrong." Penny told him, "After I was knocked into the portal, I waited there. I waited praying you would come and rescue me. But nobody ever came. Time moved differently where I was, and I spent thirty-six years waiting. Turns out someone else managed to get me out in what was only three years here. I spent a lot of time in there thinking and I realized S.H.I.E.L.D. never cared for me. Thus, I joined up with the people who saved me. They have plans for you, Arthur."

"Who are they?" Arthur demanded.

"You can't know." Penny replied, "But they will come for you when they are ready. However, I can only tell you the codename of the person that helped bring me back and offered me my new job. It's someone you know, Arthur."

She shot a look at him.

"Her codename's Igraine."

"I don't know anybody of that name." Arthur admitted.

"Exactly." Penny told him, "You'd never know if you did things besides work. Mother to King Arthur of English lore? Also the mother to his evil half-sister, Morgana Le Fey?"

"Sorry." Arthur apologized sarcastically, "I spent all of last night with my team making amends for my life, so I'm kind of tired, but I still want to offer you the position back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Please, Penny…come back to us."

"No, Arthur." Penny said, "I'm never going back. But if you're wondering where the other Hammer Industry Family members are…you're about to find out."

"I'm sorry, Penny." Arthur admitted, "I assume once we get you into interrogation, you'll be willing to tell us where they are."

With that, he took out his pistol and fired a couple of rounds from his own Night-Night Gun at her. Then something unexpected happened. Much to his surprise, a black-opaque hole opened up beneath Penny's feet and she slid down inside, almost as if she were riding an elevator. The shots fired missed her completely.

"What the-?!" Arthur asked, astonished, "Where'd you…"

"Right here, Arthur."

He turned around only to be met with a punch to the face by Penny.

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

"Oh, dear this is not good." Sabrina said, as she watched Arthur being dragged into darkness, and the signal to his secret camera being lost.

They had all made sure to install hidden cameras on each of their fellow agent's shirts so they could see what was happening if something went wrong. Things had not just gone wrong, they had gone horribly wrong.

"Guys." Bruce asked, "You saw that?"

There was a pause as Jessica and Katie looked at their phones and checked to review the footage from Arthur's camera that had been sent to them.

"Copy." Katie said, "How the hell does a girl do that?!"

"Well," Sabrina said, pulling up a file, "The good news is that I might just have an answer to that. It appears that Ms. Gelt seems to be emitting a destabilization of molecules around her by splitting them with a signal sent out from cerebral signals that escape her body…"

"Sorry." Katie asked, "In English please?"

Sabrina sighed.

"Basically, she's creating black holes with her mind that she can control with her brain." Sabrina said.

"What?!" Katie asked.

"I think it's because she had so much exposure to that other world." Sabrina explained, "At least from her side. I think part of it managed to somehow bond with her cells, allowing her to pass through portals of her own creation. Her cells in the video feed being filtered through our scanners actually show them becoming unstable."

"Copy that." Katie replied, "It's still scary that she spent thirty-six years in another world, while only three years passed here."

"That's a story for another day." Bruce replied, "What we do have, at least I think, is a way of stopping her."

"Okay." Katie replied, "Go on."

"Basically, her emissions are similar to that of the tesseract. It is possible that we can close her portals. We have some tech here which was based on Loki's staff that he used to both open and close the portal. Given to us before S.H.I.E.L.D. took the staff away for safe keepings. I think we can rig up something that should help neutralize her, but it means that we'll only have a 50/50 shot of this idea of mine actually working and subduing her powers. The best-case scenario is that we disable her powers and she make the choice to either aid S.H.I.E.L.D. again, or remain in prison."

"What's the other scenario?" Jessica asked.

Bruce sighed.

"The other scenario is that since this is Asgardian technology we're dealing with, something that's beyond anybody's comprehension, there is a chance that we could end up accelerating her power and wind up killing her as well as everything else on the planet."

Jessica took a deep breath.

"Have it ready for us by the time we get back." She finally said.

"Okay." Bruce said, "Come on, Sabrina. We've got work to do."

….

_**Soon…**_

Eventually, the two picked up Faye and brought her back to the Spec-Ops plane. Upon returning, Faye regained her consciousness and imminently, the three went to the labs.

"Okay." Bruce said, as he handed the agents their new guns, "These modified weapons have been infused with a gamma-like wave blast. This has been modified so if you shoot it into one of her black holes, it'll create a feedback loop that separates her powers and realigns her molecules to how they were before."

"Basically, we're giving her a banquet of energy that'll hopefully overload herself and thus cause a sort-of small, but effective nuclear fusion split that shouldn't destroy us. Hopefully."

"On the plus side," Bruce pointed out, "We managed to locate Arthur and Penny."

….

_**Later…**_

Arthur awoke with a groan.

He got up and realized all of his gear had been taken from him. Quickly checking his surroundings, he realized he was inside a cave of sometime.

"It's just like old times, isn't it, Arthur?"

He got up and saw Penny standing not too far away from him with her back and one foot up against the wall. Next to her was a giant opening of some kind, but it was covered by a black cloth which hung from the ceiling.

"Remember how it was when we infiltrated that base? The building had that underground tunnel to store the device we were called in for?" She reminded him, "Well, time to have a little trip down memory lane."

"Penny…" Arthur said, seriously, "I don't want to have to hurt you, but if you think that I'm going to let you get away with kidnapping Justine Hammer and her daughter…"

"Tsk, Tsk, Arthur." Penny smiled, "Don't focus on the future now. Like I said, this is about reliving the past."

With that, Penny walked over to the curtain and a black hole opened underneath her which absorbed the curtain. Now Arthur could see what was behind there. Hanging from above the ceiling was both Justine and Sasha Hammer. Both were suspended above the ground by a series of chains.

"I believe you already know about Mrs. Hammer and her daughter." Penny smiled, "Now it's time for you to choose."

"Choose what?!" Arthur asked, "What do you want from me?!"

"To understand the insanity I felt when you abandoned me!" Penny declared, "You have to live with the guilt now that your actions caused me to be stuck in a living hell until years later!"

"You don't think I asked to try and retrieve you?!" Arthur asked, appalled, "I wanted to rescue you, Penny! I did!"

"But you didn't." Penny pointed out, "And now, I'm going to make you realize that it isn't as easy as closing the case and writing off the person who went missing as 'deceased.' So now you choose, Arthur Williams. Who stays and who goes? Is it the CEO of one of this planet's most trusted worldwide communications projects, or is it the innocent daughter who got caught in all of this madness just because she got involved with being a protégé to her better? Who do you choose to kill? You have thirty seconds."

"What?" Arthur asked.

"Oh, please." Penny grinned, "It's hardly the first time you had to choose between what was and wasn't important."

Arthur stood there, soaking in everything that she was accusing him of. Despite her insanity, Penny was right in every sense. He had abandoned her after asking only once to try and plan a retrieve and rescue, and when told no, gave up instantly.

"Twenty seconds…" Penny reminded him.

"What if I refuse?" Arthur asked.

"Then they both die." Penny answered, "But it's your call."

Arthur suddenly realized something. In the corner of his eye, he could see two shadows creeping across the room. He didn't show this to Penny and instead realized what he needed to say.

"Ten…" Penny said.

"Thank you!" Arthur declared.

"…I'm sorry?" Penny asked.

"Thank you for showing me how you were right." Arthur said, "You're right. I wasn't a good man then. Hell, I don't even think I can forgive myself for what I did even now."

"Arthur what are you doing?" She demanded.

"You spent the good majority of your life being stuck in that limbo dimension for nearly your whole lifetime, and I understand now!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" She demanded.

Arthur grinned.

"It's regret. It's regret that you never got a chance to live the rest of your life! Just like I never had the chance to try and find you."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" She declared, pointing her hand at him, "WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE ME?!"

Then Katie came up from behind her, pointing a gun to her head, at first Arthur thought she was going to fire, but instead, she just held the gun there allowing Penny to notice and begin to open a black hole to pull them both down. Arthur was going to scream out in shock and horror, but then Katie fired as they began to fall into the hole. Then a bright white light rose out of the black hole, pushing the two out, and causing them both to fall on their backs as the hole closed.

Penny got back up and raised her hand, attempting to create a new black hole, but to her horror, nothing happened.

She looked up at Katie horrified as she got back up, grinning.

"Who the hell are you and what did you do?!" Penny demanded.

"My name's Katie Sheila." Katie introduced, kicking Penny in the head, knocking her out, "And I'm your replacement who just gave you your resignation."

Arthur was left speechless as he approached her. Without saying another word, he did something Katie never thought he'd ever to.

He quickly embraced her into a hug. She held her hands out awkwardly, before returning the hug back.

For the first time, Arthur felt he could put his past behind him now.

Well, after one last thing.

….

_**Later, on the Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur entered the plane's holding cell where Penny was being held in. She was now wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. Prisoner Uniform as they were bringing her to a S.H.I.E.L.D. Prison where she would live out the rest of her days in.

"I just want you to remember something." Arthur told her, "My teammate let you live."

She didn't answer him and just looked away.

Arthur sighed, trying to make his apology.

"We're taking you to a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. Prison." He explained, "You'll be buried there for the rest of your life even though you don't have any powers anymore. But I can help speed up the time you serve if you tell me who this Igraine person you're working for is. Tell me that and I'll use whatever power I have to help make it less painful for you."

She remained silent and Arthur sighed. It was a lost cause by this point.

"Suit yourself." He said, turning to leave, "Just one thing; I'm not going to be coming back to see you now, and don't expect me to send you a Christmas card either. Because you put yourself in this position. Katie helped me realize that S.H.I.E.L.D. is not built on strengths or skills, but the ability to risk it all for people they don't even know, or will even know S.H.I.E.L.D. again afterwards."

He left Penny alone in there.

….

_**Later…**_

After dropping Penny off, Arthur began to do his paperwork again. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." He said.

The door opened and Katie stepped inside.

"Mind if we take a few moments again?" She asked.

"Not at all." Arthur answered.

She sat across from his table as he finished signing the last document.

"There is one thing that's bothering me." Arthur said, "Penny said she was rescued by someone else. This person had a codename of 'Igraine' and she said this Igraine knew me apparently."

"Do you know anybody that it could be?" Katie asked.

Arthur sighed.

"No." He said, "There's a long list of people I can think of that would want revenge on me or S.H.I.E.L.D. in general, that if I wrote it down, it could take me the next five hundred years to finish."

"So what's the plan?" Katie asked.

"Well," Arthur explained, "I put in a call for Director Fury if I could visit the Triskelion and do some more research, but he said no as he's keeping a tighter grip on security there. However, I did manage to get a way to investigate the next best place that would hold possible information; The Hub."

"You guys have names for everything, don't you?" Katie smirked.

"Yeah." Arthur shrugged, " Basically, all you need to know is that it's a classified location where other worldwide missions are coordinated from. You'll be taking your actual first group training mission if all goes well with how you're doing now."

"Yeah." Katie said, flexing a muscle to show some definitive shape in its early stages, "Faye and Jessica have had me training so much, that I wouldn't mind putting on a mask like Captain America when the time came."

"Oh, leave the normal-yet-super-heroics to those like Barton, Romanoff." Arthur smirked, "Hell, I think even Moorse could give you a lesson or two when she's not so busy."

He smiled, before looking at her seriously.

"You know," He said, "You had me really worried today. I thought I was going to lose another protégé, another teammate. But instead you ended up impressing me more than you realize."

"Of course." Katie smiled, before being serious, "I'm sorry about what happened to Penny, though."

He sighed.

"You know…" Arthur admitted, "Even though she's a lost cause, I keep asking myself if I had tried harder, could I have saved her from ending up the way she did? Was really finding her now worth it?"

"I think it was," Katie admitted, "You know what the cost would've been if she came back?"

Arthur shook his head.

"The cost would've been your soul breaking, never knowing whether she had truly lived or not."

Arthur thought about it and nodded.

"That was….very poetic of you, Katie." He admitted, "Where'd you learn that?"

"From this." Katie said, pulling something out of her backpack.

She pulled out another DVD which surprised Arthur. It was a 3-Disc Set of The Star Trek Trilogy.

"Surprised you have that on you." Arthur pointed out.

"Yeah." Katie admitted, "Admittedly, I'm not that big of a sci-fi buff, but these films do have some action in it. But moreover, they have important lessons that we can both learn from. In fact, before me and my sister escaped, I brought this with me because I figured when I could, I'd try and watch it again if I was ever having doubts about my life."

She looked at him.

"Want to find out more about it?" She asked.

"Sure." Arthur shrugged, "Why not?"

"Perfect." She replied, popping out the first disc 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' and putting it in.

….

"_A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" –Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015._

….

_**Epilogue…**_

_**Hammer Worldwide Systems, Los Angeles, California…**_

Justine and Sasha sat down in their seats after everybody had welcomed them home, and thanked S.H.I.E.L.D. for bringing the two back alive even after everything that went down with the last CEO. Soon afterwards, the two began preparing work for a new announcement that would be held a few days later. The two would explain to their employees that with the rising costs of cell phones these days, Hammer Worldwide Systems would have a once-in-a-lifetime event where they would give out ten billion cellphones worldwide, to the population for free.

While this would surprise everyone, they would've been even more surprised if they noticed that Justine and Sasha had identical scars on their arms.

…

_**Earlier…**_

Justine and Sasha suddenly found themselves in a rather lavish dining hall. It didn't make any sense. One second they were in their company which was burning down around them, and the next thing they knew was that they were in this rather pristine room. However, they noticed it was dimly lit, and that there was another person in the room, her face hidden by the shadows. It was a female, who had auburn hair, but apart from that, they couldn't make out any other facial features.

"Ah!" She said, noticing the two, "I'm glad you two finally made it. Let me apologize for the surprise, but I had to get your attention somehow."

"Well, you certainty got it." Justine said, sarcastically, "Who are you and what do you want with us?!"

"All in good time," The woman in the shadows replied, "Come! Sit!"

The two sat closest to her, and then Justine got a better look at the woman's face and gasped.

"Wait!" She said, "I remember hearing about you! You worked for my husband at one point but you're…"

"The rumors of my demise are false." The woman answered, "But yes, I did do an internship for Justin Hammer back when he was just starting the company out."

She held up a wine bottle and Justine nodded. The woman poured her a glass and then offered it to Sasha who replied with a nod as well.

"Okay." The woman in the shadows declared, "So, here's what's happening. When I was interning for your husband, Ms. Hammer, I had a theory about an idea that I wasn't ready to share yet. So when I graduated, I moved away and had a good life. But then something happened which made me share my idea with other people who listened with the utmost interest."

"What was that idea?" Justine asked, taking a sip of wine, sheepishly.

The host sighed.

"It was that when last I checked, the world had too many secret kept locked away. Those in power couldn't be trusted. And so many years later, the government politicians have shoved their heads so far up their asses that I ultimately decided to fake my 'death' as you pointed out, and come up with a better idea to our world problems. War, famine, pollution, unemployment…it's not going to be solved with money."

"Then what do you propose?" Sasha asked.

The woman smiled.

"I require your consent first." She explained, "I assure you that you two are vital in my plans to save the world from lying to the point where we ultimately kill ourselves. All I need is for you to back me up on my idea and I assure you, when the time comes, you will have your own places in the new world that will be left once my proposal has become a reality. It's not about saving the world, it's about making it the much more desired place we hoped it would be one day."

Sasha and Justine looked at each other and then back at their host.

"And you swear nobody will be able to trace it back to us?" Justine asked.

"By the time we've succeeded," The host replied, "They will hail us all as the group that saved Earth."

Justine thought and then sighed.

"All right." She asked, "What is it you have planned Ms…."

"Oh," The woman said, putting her hands up, "I'm sorry. I don't go by that name anymore."

"Then what would you like to be called?"

The woman smiled again.

"For now, call me Igraine." The host replied, "Now, let's talk about saving the Earth…"

_**To be continued…**_

…

**So there you go, folks. Our first little sneak peak at Igraine! Next chapter, Arthur and the team head to the Hub during the events of the titular episode of the same name in Season 1, to try and discover anything about who Igraine might really be. Hope you all enjoyed and again, I hope this episode struck a meaning about what life means to all of us. The quote is actually from Lenoard himself, and was his final tweet he posted on the week of his death. I decided to use it because it represents what I was trying to convey here with Arthur and Penny; life can be good, but it can't last forever so we should remember the good times while we can and try not to obsess too much over what could've been. Leonard Nimoy…wherever you are…I hope that I did you right by this chapter. Live long, and prosper. Until next time. As always, reviews are appreciated but no flames. Also, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for fan-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! Hope you all enjoyed!**


	8. Secrets and Revelations

**Hello, my fellow readers! No, your eyes do not deceive you! I have another chapter of 'The Other Team!' Ready to go now! Also, I have an idea of renaming this fanfic as 'The Spec-Ops Team,' so let me know in the comments. So let me first apologize in the time it took to get this one up, as I am once again in Orlando, Florida, for my penultimate Spring Break, so I'm trying to soak up as much fun as I can before graduating from college. Also, I had to visit my Dad's mom as is tradition every time we go down, so I had to keep her company which is extremely important considering we lost my Dad's Dad last year. Thankfully, I was able to keep her spirits up, and had a great time with her. Now a couple of other things before we begin. I know I said I was done with the OC's, but there was someone who contacted me by the author penname of scrawlx1012, who submitted an OC by the name of Tyler Boateng who will debut in this chapter but will eventually return to become a recurring character later in the story. I can't say too much about him as it will be a surprise as to what role he plays in this fic. Speaking of which, the AoS episodes so far have been pretty good. If you haven't watched it yet, I strongly recommend you do so as it has introduced some plotlines that I think we'll be seeing after Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Concludes with 'Ant-Man' and will probably tie in with one of the first films of their Phase 3 Plan; 'Captain America 3: Civil War.' So that's just a recommendation. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this chapter and please don't forget to review, but don't leave flames. Oh, and as always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-PURPOPES ONLY, so PLEASE DON'T SUE! With that said, enjoy!**

_**Location Unknown…**_

Katie was instantly awoken when she felt something cold and wet hit her in the face.

Gasping, and panicking, she tried to get up only to find that she could not move her hands or legs. Turning her head as best she could, she saw that she was tied down to something.

"Okay!" She demanded, "If Christian Grey kidnapped me I swear to god, I'm going to shove the entire 50 Shades series AND The Movie Adaptation right up his ass!"

"My, my, my." A voice with a German accent declared, "Such crass language for such a young American Woman. Certainty different from the women in America back in my time. Even in Germany for that matter."

Katie froze as she saw who was approaching her. It was a man dressed entirely in black leather with a belt that had a silver buckle with the insignia of a skull with tentacles protruding from it. The same logo was also patched on both elbow areas of the man's jacket. But the most disturbing part was the man's face. It was completely red with no nose, instead having a hideous hole going inwards containing two slits for where the nose was.

"I trust you know who I am." He said.

"The Red Skull." Katie breathed, amazed, "You look remarkably well for someone who should be close to an old fart."

"You will tell me of the organization you work for." The Red Skull told her, "You will tell me about this 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' and everything you know of it."

"And if I refuse?" Katie asked, defiantly.

The Red Skull smirked and cocked his head to the right. To her horror, Katie could see a bright light approaching and the ground underneath her body starting to shake.

The Skull had tied her to a train track.

"SHIT!" She cursed.

She began trying to bite at the ropes holding her down, but found she couldn't break it.

The Red Skull took out a knife grinning at his victim's predicament.

"Please, young lady." The Skull assured, "I already killed the rest of your team, and none of them gave me an answer."

Katie continued to struggle with her bonds but it was no use.

"Tell me the secrets, and swear your allegiance to me, and I shall free you." He assured, "What other point is there to go on like this?"

Katie didn't answer and instead looked at the train.

"Is S.H.I.E.L.D. worth dying for?" He asked.

She looked at him defiantly and then screamed out the only thing she could.

"GO SCREW YOURSELF, YOU MUPPET!" She yelled.

"I do not understand that reference." The Skull admitted, stepping away from the tracks, "Alas, it appears, you have a train to catch."

Katie closed her eyes, preparing for the inevitable…

And nothing came.

Taking a peak, she saw the ground beneath her had given way, and she was now safely underneath the train which was passing over her.

Suddenly, the ground she was lying on moved back up and she saw that in the place of the Skull was Faye, wearing the clothes the Skull had been wearing.

"Good job, Katie." Faye replied, freeing her, "You passed the test of loyalty."

Katie smiled, feeling proud of herself despite what had happened.

…

_**The S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, Los Angeles, A Few Minutes Later…**_

Arthur sat at a table in the open lobby area of the academy across from Faye and Jessica. Katie had been working hard these past few days, training to the best of her ability while they had the downtime, and Arthur was ready to hear the full report from his agents on their assessment off Katie.

"So how's Katie been doing?" He asked.

"Surprisingly she's been proving herself as great S.H.I.E.L.D. material with each passing day." Jessica noted, "She really impressed Faye with the loyalty test."

"But that's only scratching the surface of how well she's been doing." Faye said, "She aced the observation test with flying colors."

"But then there was the test where the agents had to steal a car." Jessica pointed out.

"What happened?" Arthur asked.

"You didn't hear?" Faye asked, amazed, "In the assignment, Katie ended up stealing an old DeLorean car which was being shown off and was in perfect working order. Everyone else just got the usual modern-day car nonsense."

"Nice." Arthur noted, "And her fighting skills?"

"Without a doubt the best we've seen. Not counting you, of course." Faye answered, "Er…no offense."

"None taken."

"Essentially, she's learned a lot of street skills in her day." Faye answered, "And she's managed to handle waves of agents on her own because of it."

"So what's the problem then?" Arthur asked.

They looked at each other and then back at him.

"Arthur…" Jessica replied, "You might not like this, but I think we do need to get her to stop talking about all these movies and such. Intellectually, she's only got this one-track mind that keeps her in this bubble of video games and movie references, and I'm afraid some of the other girls here have tried to tease her about this."

"She's progressing though." Arthur stated, "And that's what counts. Right now, we need to prepare ourselves for our visit to The Hub. Jessica, I know it's a bit difficult and possibly weird going back, especially with Victoria."

"It's quite alright, Arthur." Jessica smiled, "I can handle 'The Hand' as some of the people nicknamed her."

"Right." Katie said, walking up now dressed in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Recruit T-Shirt and black pants, "Where to now."

"Someplace amazing." Arthur grinned as the group got up, and walked back to the Spec-Ops Plane.

By this point, Arthur had learned a lot more from Katie than he would've thought he could when she became his protégé.

During his last movie viewing with her, he had really enjoyed watching the 'Star Trek trilogy' and understood why Katie had watched it with him as it dealt with themes of life, loss, and revenge.

Arthur had never been a fan of sci-fi growing up but with Katie's help, he had been able to put aside his criticisms of the cheesy most-likely improbable (from what the world knew about aliens nowadays,) nature of the future and actually found himself enjoying the films.

The first one which had hit him hard was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He was impressed with how Ricardo Montalbán had maintained such an impressive physique and managed to convince Arthur that he was the King Leer of the future, feeling loss, anger, and revenge over the death of his wife.

At the same time, William Shatner had managed to also equally impress Arthur with him playing the character of Captain (now Admiral) Kirk going through doubts of continuing in Starfleet due to his old age. The most impressive scene was how Kirk handled Spock's death scene and made it believable in terms of sadness, loss, and loneness all rolled into one.

The Third film was also equally impressive with how far Kirk went to save his friend losing his rank, his role in Starfleet, his ship, and even his own son just to save Spock, even if it was only a theory that he could be resurrected. Truth be told, Arthur was happy they managed to save Spock and it made all the sacrifice worth it just to save a friend. He also loved how Kirk repeated Spock's line to him from the last film about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, and flipping it to explain that Spock outweighed everything else.

The only one Arthur didn't care for was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Not that it was a bad film, but it felt almost out of place to see the Enterprise crew walking around then-modern-day Earth. He also thought it was a bit too much to see Kirk try to hook up with another woman so soon after the death of his own son, but overall, the film was okay.

He now questioned if one day he too would have to decide between his job and those he was forming friendships with. He figured he'd know the right choice when the time came.

….

_**Later, The Hub, Location Unknown…**_

"Wow!" Katie declared, looking around at the giant hanger filled with different planes and cars.

She had exited the plane with Bruce, Sabrina, Jessica, and Faye following Arthur who was leading the head of the group, with a grin on his face.

"Welcome to the Hub." Arthur introduced, "This is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second-most guarded areas. The first being the Triskelion. It's also where Jessica was stationed before joining our team. This is where the dreams begin, Katie."

"And why are you giving the tour then, Arthur?" Jessica asked.

Arthur looked at her with a mischievous Cheshire grin.

"Because I want to make Katie feel as comfortable as possible before sending her out on her first group training mission." He explained.

He lead them into a clear-glass slide-open door and they found themselves surrounded by different S.H.I.E.L.D. agents running back and forth preforming various duties as they passed down a number of hallways, with various doors and cubical around every turn.

"Here," Arthur said, continuing his little tour, "Is where the big-league protégés complete their training by being assigned a random task to show how much they've learned. That's where you'll be heading to Katie. The rest of us will be doing our best to try and track down any information on this mysterious benefactor Penny was referring to, and…"

He was cut off when he heard some kind of annoyed voice making a fuss about something not so far away from where they were walking.

"The Hub of all places, even a monkey could work this thing…"

The group stopped and saw a young man with short curly orange hair working on a control panel to a door and failing repeatedly.

"Hey!" Bruce asked, getting the man's attention, "Aren't you Leo Fitz?!"

"Uh…yes. Yes I am." The man said, recomposing himself, "Sorry. I'm uh…I'm having a little bit of trouble with the door."

"Let me try." Arthur said, working on the code, "A bunch of other agents are always screwing around with the door. 20…13….14!"

With that, the door opened, leaving Fitz shocked. Arthur just smiled.

"A bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents like to mess around with this thing and put in new codes based on the number one written in different languages. Just a hint for next time."

"Uh…thanks…" Fitz said, moving out.

"Isn't he on Coulson's team now?" Faye asked.

"Why yes," A voice replied behind the group, "He is on my team."

They turned around to see Agent Coulson himself standing there with a file held in his hand. To his right was Skye, and on his left was two other woman. One was tall with long dark brown hair, and the other was a bit shorter with light brown hair.

"Agent Coulson." Arthur said, shaking his hand.

"Agent Williams." Coulson replied, "What brings you to The Hub?"

"Training for my new protégé." Arthur explained, as Katie stepped forward, "Katie, you already know Phil and Skye. The other two are Melinda May, the most talented pilot S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever had, and the other woman I believe is Agent Jemma Simmons."

"That is correct," She replied, shaking Katie's hand, "Pleased to meet you, Arthur Williams we've heard so much about what your team has done."

"Thank you." Arthur said, as Simmons turned to Katie.

"So how has your training been?"

"Pretty good." Katie admitted, "Got almost perfect scores in everything else. Makes Ellen Ripley look like Bella Swan."

"Quick bit of advice." May told her sternly, "When they give you the mission here, try to pack accordingly to the mission parameters."

"Thanks." Katie replied.

"So how'd you pass so quickly?" Skye asked, "Ward's still trying to teach me how to defend myself."

"Well, it works when you have basically watched almost every action movie ever made." Katie grinned, "Speaking of which, is Ward here? And is that the same Ward who apparently accused my SO of cheating by taking steroids?"

"He is." Phil replied, "It's the same one. But he's taking a phone call right now. He and Fitz are about to go on a mission while we monitor them from here along with Agent Hand. If you are here for your recruit training though, I can walk you over to the meeting room since it's almost 12:00."

"Thanks." Katie said, "I'd appreciate it, but, uh… what happens at noon?"

"All recruit agents are to report to a certain room. They'll have it announced." Phil said, "Here, let me walk you over."

"I'll be sure to give Ward a kick in the nuts for you if I see him, Artie." Katie smiled, waving him off.

"Don't." Arthur warned, "Ward might not be as good as me, but he's still better than you in that he'll shove your hand up your butt as soon as you look at him."

"Noted." Katie said, as she and Phil turned a corner and were out of sight.

"Look at her." Arthur smiled, "All grown up already."

"Was that sarcasm?" Skye asked.

"What one?" Arthur questioned, "About me and Ward or the grown up line?"

"Both."

"Ah," Arthur nodded, "The one about Ward is a warning. Katie's young, but she's still a bit of a loose cannon. She did well in everything except her social skills."

"I noticed." May pointed out.

"It's not her fault." Arthur said, "She had a rough childhood growing up and…well…she had only one friend who she thought of as her sister, and they tried to escape resulting in her sister's death."

The three women were silent for a minute before Simmons finally broke the quiet nature.

"I'm…I'm so sorry." She said, "Nobody should ever have to live through that experience."

"Yeah." Arthur said, "Well, perhaps she'll do better here."

"If she wants to talk to me about it, tell her I'll ask Coulson if we can S.H.I.E.L.D. Skype or something." Skye suggested.

"Thanks." Arthur said, "Well, we'd better get going, lots of paperwork to do."

"Same." May said, "It was good to see you again, Agent Williams."

"Likewise, Agent May." Arthur replied, "Be seeing you around."

With that, the group parted ways. When they were out of hearing distance, Simmons looked at May.

"So we're sure that's Agent Williams and not some Life Model Decoy?" She asked.

"Positive." May replied.

"Wow!" Skye declared, "What's with the sudden mood change?"

"Arthur Williams has had a reputation of being the most obsessed S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent ever." Simmons answered, "Even when off-duty he tends to usually act like he's still upholding any kind of law from what stories Fitz and I heard. It's part of the reason why he was given that team, I believe."

"Yeah, but he can change right?" Skye asked, "I mean look at me."

"Well, you're technically still training, Skye." Simmons pointed out, "And no offense, but after what happened with that whole incident with Centepied and you hiding information about your hacker friend, you still have some ways to go before becoming a full-time S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent."

"None taken, Simmons. I guess I should take a class from Mr. Williams then."

"I'd highly recommend you don't try it." May told her, "As bad as Ward is, as Arthur himself said, he makes Ward look pale in comparison."

"He's that good?" Skye asked, "Wait! Did he beat you at any point?"

May kept quiet as usual, and Skye had to deal with not knowing whether or not this Arthur Williams had managed to one-up May at some point.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

"So how'd you come back from the dead?" Katie asked Phil who looked at her surprised, "Arthur told me the whole story. Well, almost the whole thing. He said you went up against Loki, got stabbed in the chest, ended up being the martyr that brought The Avengers together… but how is it you're walking around all cherry?"

"Well, as it turns out," Phil explained, "When the Asgardian Mussolini stabbed me in the chest, he just barely missed my heart. I was out for a short while, so Fury lied about my death to bring the Avengers together while I recovered in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Tahiti. He ruined my Captain America trading card though, which I'm still not over."

"I heard you were a big Cap fan as well." She said, "Do you and Arthur have a rivalry like he does with Ward?"

"No." Coulson explained, "There's a reason why there's no rivalry. I like him because despite me being a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, I'm still a fanboy at heart. No pun intended. Arthur looks up to him because he wants to be as good as him. That's usually not a good thing, but it's for a good cause. Sometimes you shouldn't try to mold yourself after somebody. You should just try to be yourself."

"Thanks." Katie responded, "I'll remember that."

"Well," Phil said, stopping outside a lone door, "Here you are. When the PA Announces the female recruits to converge in this area, that'll be your cue to enter and be the first one in. Best of luck to you, Ms. Sheila."

"Thanks." She replied, shaking Phil's hand, "Tell the others I'll do my best to make them proud."

Phil nodded and left her there alone. After a few minutes, she heard the PA System go off.

"All Potential Female Recruits!" The voice of a woman declared, "This is Agent Victoria Hand. Please report to the briefing room for your mission."

Katie entered and found a number of seats with plain folders on there. She went for one when a voice stopped her.

"Aheam." A voice coughed.

Katie turned around to see an African American Man with Hazel eyes, and short black curly hair wearing a black muscle shirt, a trench coat, blue jeans, and red trainers. He was fairly skinny, but not too much on Katie's guesstimate. She also noticed he had some chin hairs growing on him.

"Those are not to be opened until I tell you to." He said, with a slight hint of a British Accent.

"And you are…?" Katie asked.

"Agent Tyler Boateng." He said, "Current field agent and replacement for Jessica Smith. I assume you are Ms. Katie Sheila."

"I am." Katie nodded.

Tyler looked her over and nodded.

"There is room for improvement." He said.

"And just when I thought I was getting somewhere with people complimenting me." Katie said, sarcastically.

"Just take a seat and await further instructions." He demanded.

Katie did so. A few seconds later, three other girls walked into the room, all wearing black T-Shirts, pants, and shoes. One looked Japanese and the other two looked American (or at the very least English like Tyler was). The Japanese woman had her hair tied back into a ponytail, while the taller of the two other girls had orange hair that looked all frizzled out and the last girl had long straight red hair.

"Recruits." Tyler told them, "Fall in and report on your status."

The girls all formed into a straight line with Katie being ready and standing as straight up as she could this time.

The Japanese girl stood up first.

"Sakura Veers." She introduced, "Protégé to Agent Issak. Specialties in infiltration and replacement undercover work."

She stepped back as the girl with orange hair who was to the right of her stood up next.

"Angelica Rose." The orange hair girl said, "Protégé to Agent Steele. Expert in martial arts and takedown combat."

She stepped back as the redheaded girl who was directly to Katie's left stood up.

"Virginia Cavenaugh." She introduced, "Protégé to Agent Calabro. Expert in assassinations and covert killings."

She stepped back as Katie went up as the last one there.

"Katie Sheila," She introduced, "Protégé to Arthur Williams. Expert in explosives, and also in keeping secrets as well as other fields of expertise."

She stepped back, hoping that she had said everything as she had remembered from her training.

Tyler just nodded unemotionally, as he wrote took out a notepad and started writing some stuff down. Katie looked at the other girls who were watching Tyler in a way a puppy would to its owner when waiting for him to finish patiently. Katie just twiddled her thumbs, waiting for Tyler to finish. When he was done, he looked at all the girls.

"Right." He said, "Now, all of you have been protégé's to some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best agents. You've all seen your action of expertise alongside your teammates, but today is when you learn to trust others like your own teammates, and how to work together.

You may now take out your folder contents. All girls grabbed their files and opened them. Each file had a printed-out ticket to a nightclub called Club Noir. There was also a checklist of some kind regarding clothes, makeup, and accessories.

"Tonight," Tyler explained, "You will attend the Club Noir in New York City, and you will be tasked with acquiring as much information as you can from the club. You will have 4 hours from now to select you clothing and other things that will become your appearance for the infiltration. The one who comes back with the highest results will be made a full-time S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent amongst your teammates. Fail or walk away, and…well, you get to still be on your team, but only as a protégé and won't be able to try again for a whole year. Understood?"

The women all nodded.

"Very well." He said, "Fill out the list and come see me when you're done."

The girls all nodded as Tyler left. Katie began to look over the sheet as Angelica walked up to her.

"Hi there." She smiled as Katie looked at her, "So…where did you go to college? Harvard? Princeton?"

Katie was about to answer when Angelica interrupted.

"Wait!" She declared, "Don't tell me! You were at the fast food joint in New York selling me those fries, weren't you."

"No." Katie said, sarcastically, "But I take it you went to either Smith or Yale since you look like you know how to talk out of your ass. Which isn't to say you could learn to talk out of your mouth there as well, without having to say anything, but rather using the tongue."

Angelica glared at her and walked away.

"Don't mind her." Sakura said, shaking her hand, "I'm Sakura, by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Katie replied.

"Well," Sakura sighed, "We should probably look into that checklist now."

"Good idea." Katie agreed.

As Katie looked over the list she thought about the advice both Phil Coulson and Melinda May had told her.

"_When they give you the mission, try to pack accordingly to the mission parameters."_

"_Sometimes you shouldn't try to mold yourself after somebody. You should just try to be yourself."_

She took both of these lessons to heart and began checking off what she wanted for her disguise. She decided if she were going to go undercover, she would come off as herself, but with everything that might entitle to the mission's parameters. So something not-too-serious, but something she'd casually go around in as well.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

After speaking with Victoria Hand, Arthur led his team down a long flight of stairs. At the bottom was a door which Arthur opened and ushered everyone else into. The room was pitch black and nobody could see anything beyond. Once everyone was in, Arthur flipped the lights on and they found themselves in a large room almost as big as the hangar filled to the brim with file cabinets that seemed to go on forever.

"Woah." Bruce said, as shocked as Sabrina was.

"Welcome to the most detailed file records ever to have existed." Arthur introduced, "The most important files in S.H.I.E.L.D. are done in pen and paper and put down here. Dating all the way back to when it was just known as the SSR till the present. The best part? Nobody can hack into paper."

"So where do we start?" Sabrina asked.

"We just have to keep looking until we find a file with regards to this Igraine." Arthur said, "And remember, Hill said we only have 4 Hours to look for this stuff, so let's hurry up!"

Everyone nodded and raced to check the files with the first letter of the subject they were looking for.

…

_**Two Hours Later…**_

After searching for what seemed to them like a small eternity, Sabrina pulled out a file marked 'The Igraine Operation.' Upon inspecting it a bit closer, her eyes widened.

"I FOUND IT!" She yelled.

Almost instantly, her teammates dropped their files, putting them back where they found them and running over to her. She waited until the rest of her teammates had found her and seen the file before she began her further inspection of the contents.

"Okay." She said, holding the file open so they could all view it, "It says here that 'The Igraine Operation was an old CIA mission from the year before Nick Fury joined S.H.I.E.L.D. It was apparently here that Nick got his first exposure to the larger picture of being in, as he put it, "a bigger universe." The operation had one setback when a lone agent was exposed to some kind of biological/mechanical apparatus and…"

She stopped.

"And what?" Arthur asked, "Sabrina, what is it?!"

Sabrina just kept quiet as she passed the file to Arthur. He read it and his eyes widened.

The others looked at the file as it was passed around and stared equally amazed at what laid within there as well. There was a good portion of paper documents blacked out (no doubt Fury as he tended to keep his biggest secrets hidden from anyone except those he felt could be trusted with the information,) but the parts that Sabrina had mentioned had been left untouched.

It was the words that explained which CIA member had been exposed to the unknown 0-8-4, that chilled everybody viewing the file to their very core.

…

_**Later, Arlington Cemetery…**_

Arthur looked outside the rented van that he had acquired for the mission. His head was still swimming in thoughts about what happened with regards to the file. To the shock of him and the rest of his team, the agent who had been alongside Fury during Operation Igraine, the one who had been exposed to the alien-sounding technology, was none other than Arthur's own mother.

Imminently afterwards, Sabrina did a blood test of Arthur to ensure he wasn't carrying anything dangerous in him and much to her relief, Arthur was still healthy with no signs of alien bio or tech stored in his body. Then Arthur requested a quick trip to Arlington where his mother was buried. There was nothing else in the file that had been helpful since it had been all redacted, and the only thing that they could go on was a message Fury had left in there a few days after Arthur's mother died saying "If anybody's interested in knowing what happened to this woman, don't bother. I buried the secrets with her at the funeral."

Fury always liked to talk in riddles, but sometimes they were quite obvious.

Arthur sighed getting out of the car with his team. They decided if this Igraine Operation was coming back to haunt them, then whoever had manipulated Penny had known Arthur and thus could potentially know about his Mom. So for now, the team was dressed in trench coats and scarfs under the guise of some caretakers making room in the cemetery.

Bruce held his little device in his pocket tightly. He had managed to whip up an electromagnetic scrambler which would hopefully hide their images on any forms of satellite maps until the moment had passed, so as to keep them safe. Arthur also made sure they were all wearing their hologram belts so they could cover themselves if need be.

"Did you know your mother worked with Fury?" Jessica asked, as they walked into the cemetery.

"No." Arthur admitted, "I never even attended the funeral. It's something I'm starting to regret now."

As they continued to walk, Sabrina turned to Bruce.

"Um…Bruce?" She asked, "I know this isn't your department, but what do you think is going through Arthur's head right now."

Bruce thought about it for a second and shrugged.

"Can't speak for him." Bruce admitted, "But if you really think about it, he's just found out that there's somebody out there who has plans for him and who apparently knew his mother. The only thing that we have to go on is a clue that's supposedly literally buried with his mother."

"Do you think this is him going back to his old ways of being a bit more hardened?" Sabrina questioned.

Bruce looked at her with a face full of doubt.

"I can't honestly say, Sabrina." He replied, "But in my experience, it's probably best that we don't ask him. Though he does seem to have improved in the last few weeks."

Up ahead, Faye walked closer to Arthur.

"How are you feeling?" Faye asked.

"Right now?" Arthur asked, "Regret. You know I never went to my Mom's funeral?"

Faye and Jessica looked at him surprised. Arthur just stared ahead blankly, but continued.

"I was still in S.H.I.E.L.D. training when she passed, remember." He reminded them, "When the word came in, I didn't attend because I figured Mom would've wanted me to go on in my life and keep practicing. Now I'm regretting my decision and wondering if I had gone, maybe none of this crap would be happening now."

"Do you want my own opinion, Arthur?" Faye asked.

"Sure."

"You did what you thought was right." Faye reminded him, "I can't speak for you personally, but whatever the case, chances are you might not have survived that experience. Whatever Fury might've blacked out, we'll hopefully find a reason for once we look inside the grave."

Arthur nodded as Jessica put a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, Arthur." She said, as Arthur looked back at her, "I know most of us had our doubts about you as a leader, but over the past few missions, you've changed. You've become a better man thanks to Katie. You actually care about people now rather than the mission. So whatever happens, we're behind you till the end."

Arthur smiled and nodded.

"Thanks, Jessica." He said, "That means a lot to me."

They walked for a little until they finally found the tombstone with Arthur's Mother's name on it. Next to it was his Dad's tombstone. Both were made of pure marble and carved in with the names, dates of birth and death, and the epitaphs.

"Just…give me a moment." Arthur said, with hints of sadness in his voice.

The others nodded and Arthur looked down at the ground.

"Hey, Mom. Dad." He greeted, softly, "How's it going? I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent now. Level 7. I know, right."

Arthur looked away, but continued.

"Mom…" He said, "I know I was working on training when I died, but you'd tell me, right? You'd tell me if you had been on some kind of mission and had been exposed to something, correct?"

He paused for a brief moment, but looked back.

"I know it's wrong of me to say, but I should've been there." He admitted, "Maybe I could've solved this case earlier. That's the only thing I can think of that would justify me being at your funeral at the time. For that, I'm so sorry about what I'm going to have to do next. But I love you, Mom. But as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., it's my duty to check any possible connections for anything that relates to my case."

He looked at his Dad's tomb.

"And I apologize for that also, Dad." He said, "But it's what an agent would do. I'll try visiting more often after this."

He got up and looked at his team, his friends.

"All right." Arthur sighed, "Let's get this over with."

They each took hold of a shovel they had and began digging away. They worked for about an hour and a half when they finally hit something.

Arthur looked at his team and nodded.

They all began digging away until they pulled up a large wooden coffin.

Arthur looked at the coffin, putting his hand on there and looking at it regrettably.

"I'm sorry, Mom." He said.

With that, he threw open the coffin lid…

And almost had a heart attack. He assumed that his mother would have been decomposed and that lying in her tomb would be some kind of message or clue. Arthur was dead wrong.

While there was a piece of paper in her hands, the woman in the tomb had his mother's full face with no rotting flesh or decomposition signs to be found on her body.

Arthur looked at the others who were equally shocked as Sabrina took out some kind of device that looked like a needle mounted on a thermometer crossed with a small flashlight. She stuck the needle into the woman's neck, and waited as the blood was collected into there. She took it out and began reading over the results on the small screen featured on the device.

"This…" She said, amazed, "This is impossible!"

She turned to the others.

"Arthur, the results say this is your mother…but it's only about 94.2 Percent of a match for your mother."

"Sabrina…" Arthur declared, "What are you saying?!"

"I'm saying that this woman has almost the same exact traits as your mother, to the point where she fooled us into believing it was her for a second. But she has some…imperfections different from that vial of your mother's blood we managed to grab before we left."

"So either Mom's managed to have the best beauty sleep of her afterlife…" Arthur said.

"Or it's a clone of her." Sabrina concluded.

"Wait…" Faye pointed out, looking closely at her left arm, "What's this here?"

Arthur looked closer and saw that there was a scar of some kind running along the woman's left arm. Following the scar up, to her shoulder, he suddenly felt some kind of thing up her sleeve. It felt like paper.

Reaching inside, Arthur pulled out a folded up sheet and opened it to read its contents.

"Whoever is reading this," He read, "Something bad has either happened or is going to happen. I can't make heads or tails yet, but I was originally going to read this to Arthur Williams as a message when he was trained to be a proper S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. However, this last-minute note is much more crucial. This woman is not Arthur William's mother, and the body has gone missing. I can't say for certain, but my instincts tells me something big is on the horizon. When we worked together on that last mission before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., his mother acted weird after being exposed to the 0-8-4 we discovered. Said things about finding the solution to overpopulation, global warming, wars, famine, disease….something happened to her in here, and I hope that if I don't find out what it was, someone else will. Nicholas Fury."

Arthur looked at the paper and then back at the clone of his mom.

"Something happened to her." He said, "I think I have some theories of my own too."

"What do you intend to do?" Jessica asked.

Arthur looked at the clone of his mother angrily.

"I'm going to find the son of a bitch who swapped my Mom's corpse out." He said, "Then I'm going to find out why they did what they did and punch them in the face."

Suddenly a beeping noise could be heard.

"Uh…" Bruce said, worriedly, "That's not us."

Arthur looked at the scar along the clone's arm and saw it was glowing red.

"MOVE!" He declared, yelling at the top of his lungs, "GET DOWN!"

With that, he tackled both Faye and Sabrina and leapt with them as far away as he could. Bruce almost instinctively grabbed Jessica, and despite her being stronger than him, managed to push her farther away too. The beeping went into a flat line sound and then the corpse clone exploded, rocking the fields, but missing the agents.

Arthur got up, letting go of Faye and Sabrina while Bruce let go of Jessica. Looking over the explosion mark left behind, Arthur's fists balled up tightly.

"Actually, there's one more thing I'd like to do." He said, "And that's kill whoever's causing us so much pain and misery."

…

_**Meanwhile,**_

_**Club Noir, New York…**_

Agents Angelica Rose, Sakura Veers, and Virginia Cavenaugh could barely comprehend the fourth wheel in their training. They had all been to go into the Club Noir in New York to get information from people while going undercover. The three girls had made themselves up to pose as high-profile elite millionaire, but the fourth wheel…

"Jesus Christ, Katie!" Virginia declared, "What the hell are you wearing?!"

The fourth member, Katie Sheila, looked completely contrasted to the other training agents upper-class appearances. She was currently wearing a black tank top with a golden bottom half which left her belly exposed, and a golden wraparound necklace. She wore a black skirt and high-heel boots, with a large black belt with a golden circle around her pants.

"What's wrong?" Katie asked, honestly lost for words.

"We're supposed to get information out of the men by chatting things up with them, not by sleeping with them!" Angelica scolded.

"It's fine." Katie assured, "I got this."

After going inside, the girl's reached the top floor of the club where they beheld the site of a massive dance floor with a DJ to the top right playing loud music. Millions of upper-class socialites were drinking, chatting, and having an overall good time.

"All right." Virginia said, trying to keep her voice down, but also trying to keep it above the music so the others could hear her, "Everyone got their comms on?"

The other girls nodded.

"Good." She said, "Then let's go and try to find some info!"

Katie smirked. She'd done everything perfectly so far, this would be a basic piece of cake.

Seeing a man with slicked back orange hair, she walked up to him and smiled.

"Hi, there, Ginger." She grinned wickedly.

The man turned and looked at her confused. Not noticing his reaction, Katie continued.

"I'm a girl looking for a big strong man to whisper stuff into my ear. Know where I can find one?"

"Get away from me, you freak!" The man declared, stomping off and taking Katie by surprise, "You're a walking lawsuit just waiting to happen."

Katie was dumbfounded.

"I'm…I'm sorry!" She called out, trying to salvage her mistake, "I…I was just…"

"Nice outfit, skank!" Another voice called.

She looked and saw a snotty-looking 18-Year Old in a fine suit pointing at her, "This isn't the 2013 VMA's you know."

Katie's confidence was rapidly dropping. She needed something to take her mind off things quickly. She went up to the bar and looked at the bartender seriously.

"I don't do this kind of thing," She admitted, "But I need the strongest alcohol you got."

"Need to see some I.D., young lady." The bartender explained.

Katie was about to bring out some swear words when she stopped, hearing Angelica and Virginia over the comms.

"No, it's just that I don't believe she's really cut out for this stuff." Angelica said.

"Her main problem's that she comes from a different background than most recruits. But even so that new girl working for Coulson's team…Skye, I think it was….anyways, at least Coulson has the sense to keep a good eye on her." Virginia added.

"Arthur Williams needs to keep Katie on a leash." Angelica agreed, "Or I think this Rising Tide business will be the smallest threat S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to face nowadays."

Katie couldn't take much more. She stormed out of the club and ran back into the streets, sitting inside the truck and curling herself up into a ball. She couldn't take any more of this spy crap if everybody was going to be just insulting to her or putting her down constantly.

…...

_**Later, Back at The Hub…**_

Arthur imminently granted his team a moment of rest upon their arrival back to The Hub. He had to reflect on what he thought he knew. Had his mother actually been replaced at her own funeral? And Fury had left a note for him originally, but now it was a warning. Arthur knew a storm was coming and he felt like he had to figure it out sooner than later.

But he had changed now. He didn't want to get riled up just yet. After all, he had promised himself he was going to try and change now. He had realized how much time he spent judging people from first impressions before assessing the situation rather than get more intel, and he didn't want to be that kind of person any more. He wanted to do good, yes, but at the same time he wanted to better himself so he didn't come off as such a jackass to everybody.

As he questioned these thoughts, he looked up and realized something. His personal S.H.I.E.L.D. car was now gone.

"Excuse me!" He called to a nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, "Where's my car?"

He showed his ID to the agent who shrugged.

"Dunno." He admitted, "But I heard Sitwell was going to be looking after it. I saw him go down that hallway not too long ago."

"Thanks." Arthur said, running off down the hallway the agent had pointed to.

As he ran down, he saw Sitwell but suddenly realized a closet was opened which imminently closed on his own. Looking closer he saw Sitwell was talking to Simmons who was working by a control panel. That meant that she was breaking the rules.

In any other case, Arthur would've questioned the situation and helped take down Simmons, but he suddenly hesitated. He could see Simmons was looking quite uncomfortable but she still had an innocent look she was trying to keep up. Arthur had heard some reports from Agent Coulson's team that Simmons and Fitz were an incredible duo, but worked equally well with the rest of the team. And though they tended to overstep their boundaries, each report read that the two did so in the name of not just S.H.I.E.L.D., but for the greater world itself.

Arthur knew she would never do this kind of breaking in unless it were for some kind of good cause, and because of that, Arthur couldn't let Sitwell detain her if this meant so much to her. Katie had been in the same position when she met Arthur and he made a mistake he was going to try and not make again.

So instead, Arthur mustered up all his strength and did something new for the first time in his life.

He aided the potential threat.

"Are you on the comms with someone?" Sitwell asked.

"Sitwell." Arthur called.

Jasper turned unaware of the Simmons breathing a sigh of relief behind him. Arthur could also hear what sounded like Skye breathing a sigh of relief also behind a nearby closed door. Arthur was keen not to draw any attention to the small details. As far as he was aware, Skye and Simmons were good people and whatever they were trying to do had to be for a good explanation.

It's what Katie would've said anyways.

But the opportunity could not have presented itself any better than right now.

"Agent Williams." Sitwell noted.

"Agent Sitwell, I need to talk to you in the hangar area right now." Arthur told him

"Agent Williams," Sitwell chuckled, "I'm not sure if you're aware of how things work, but..."

"I'm perfectly aware of how things work," Arthur replied, "Now I have something that links you to an important case that needs your attention right now. I understand the possible breach in security here, but if you want your list of options, here's the ones you have; one is you can look in the hangar and I'll quickly but thoroughly assess the problem here. The other is I get Agent Hand, who I think is being colder than usual and having not that good of a day, and bring her over so you can explain why when a team leader specifically requested your help during a crisis, you chose to ignore him and instead forced him to ask Hand for support."

Sitwell groaned. He knew Arthur was technically a Level 7 for his own team, but at the same time, it gave him special privileges such as that of being able to call on Victoria Hand to back him up in any situation. He knew Hand was being particularly strict today about supervising the mission between Agents Ward and Fitz, and even the slightest interruption would probably put her in a worst mood. As much as Jasper hated to admit it, Arthur did have the authority to demand he help out. So instead, Sitwell nodded and walked away.

"Make it quick and I'll see you there." Sitwell replied.

As he left, Skye finally revealed herself as she joined Simmons. Both cautiously looked over William's shoulder confirming there were no more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"Oh thank you!" Simmons exclaimed, suddenly recoiling, "I don't know how to explain this, but uh..."

"Don't." Arthur stated, "It's perfectly fine. I understand the gist. You're trying to do something that you feel is right despite the consequences it has on your reputation as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Either that or Katie's rebellious nature has rubbed off on me and I've made a terrible mistake."

"No." Skye said with a smile, "That just means you're human. Look, you're right. We shouldn't do this, but we can't wait to find out what Fitz and Ward are up to."

"Very well." Arthur nodded, "You two finish up and get in and out before someone else shows up. I have to join up again with Sitwell."

The two ladies looked at him confused.

"So there's an actual problem you're having?" Skye asked.

"Yes," Williams responded, "But it might be a little less dramatic than what I made it out to be like."

"I'll have to pay you back sometime." Simmons suggested, "Do you like sandwiches, Agent Williams? I'll make you my homemade pesto Aioli sometime. Fitz loves it, but I'm sure you would as well..."

"Do what you want," Williams said, walking off to join Sitwell, "But you're on the clock now so if you want answers, you'd better start hacking now and get what you need before someone like Hand catches you."

Simmons and Skye looked at each other and went back to their personal mission at hand.

...

_**Later…**_

"Hacking to try and get into the cafeteria kitchen?" Sitwell asked after Williams had told his side of the story.

"It's not uncommon. Ever see Dawn of the Dead? Die Hard?"

Sitwell looked at him surprised. Arthur just shrugged.

"Some of Katie's habits rubbing off." He explained, "Anyways, Simmons is very persistent about making her recipe herself and seeing as how The Bus is out of groceries and how there's no way to get to the nearest Grocery Store for a while, AND the fact that the cafeteria is closed for the moment, she didn't see any other way."

Sitwell nodded. Arthur could tell he was finding it hard to believe, but he had exaggerated a few more points so he could tell that deep down, Sitwell didn't have any reason not to trust him.

"Now," He said, leading the officer to his plane and pointing at an empty space, "Can you tell me what this is?"

Sitwell looked confused but guessed.

"A blank space?" He questioned.

"A blank space." Arthur acknowledged approvingly, "Don't worry. Nothing to be afraid of, Agent Sitwell. Now can you guess what should be here?"

Sitwell shrugged.

"No." He responded.

"Okay." Arthur said, "I was told that you were given explicit instructions to keep an eye on my S.H.I.E.L.D. Issued 2013 Black Honda Accord car, so imagine my surprise when I find it gone and you not here."

"Agent Williams," Sitwell explained, "I can assure you I was never given these instructions nor did I see your car except when arriving."

"Then where the hell is my car?!" Arthur asked.

...

_**Meanwhile, Boston...**_

Two gangly-looking females walked back to their home. One was a short young African American woman with pigtails while the other was an older woman with auburn hair tied into a bun. They were surprised when a 2013 Black Honda Accord pulled up and the windows were lowered revealed a face which made the other girls suddenly feel extremely happy.

"Evening, Ladies." Katie smiled, "Who's up for the trip of a lifetime?"

Her old friends grinned as they entered the car.

"Katie Sheila!" The older of her friends grinned, "What the hell happened to you?! We missed you!"

"That's a long story that doesn't need much explaining, Abby!" Katie grinned.

"You gonna explain how you got this car?!" The younger of her friends asked, "Or what you're doing dressed like that?!"

"Would you believe me that I just nicked this without doing any favors, Tabatha?" Katie grinned, "Now less talk, more action! I feel the need for speed!"

With that, she took off as her and Katie turned the radio on. As it did, the song _Take It Off _by The Donnas began blasting through the speakers. Katie finally felt happy again, but it was short-lived when she heard the sound of police sirens blaring and turned around to see some officers hot on their trail.

"Dammit!" Abby swore, looking at the officers chasing them, "We haven't even been out for less than five minutes!"

"It's okay." Kattie assured, pressing one of the secret buttons in front of the GPS, "Wait till you see what this does."

Katie expected the car's rear end to start squirting oil, but to her horror, she saw that the front lights of the car had went out and now a secret compartment was opening up there revealing twin machine guns.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" She asked, trying to find some way of turning the car guns off, "Oh, no. Oh, no. No! No!"

Unfortunately, the first button she pressed made the guns go off. Instantly, people who noticed the guns ducked down and those who didn't heard the sound of gunfire and dropped to the ground as well.

Not knowing what else to do, Katie spun the wheel as the car spun in circles. Her friends screamed and eventually, Katie hit a lamppost and the guns turned off. Before Katie could even have a moment to breathe, the officers busted the windows and dragged her out of there along with her friends.

Katie's hands were forced behind her back as an officer slapped a pair of handcuffs on there. Katie knew she was going to be getting some real punishment now for her crimes. Every other time that she had pulled this kind of move, it was usually for something like carjacking or for swiping some cash off of people whilst they weren't looking. But she had almost killed people. Accidently, yes, but Katie was smart enough to know the news would probably make her out to be a criminal or terrorist and have her hung to justify why some innocents almost died.

Then she heard a voice.

"Excue me! Pardon me! Coming through!"

"What the hell do you want?!" The man demanded.

"Please sir!" Arthur said, "She's with me. She was just testing out some new experimental hardware with my car, and she accidently hit a wrong button."

"And those two others with her?" The man asked.

Arthur looked at Katie's two friends who stared at him confused.

"They're just protégés to her." Arthur lied, "Here's the clearance."

He handed the officer his ID. The officer looked it over and sighed.

"Get lost you two." He said, to Abby and Tabatha.

The two ran off, as he uncuffed Katie and shoved her to Arthur.

"Get back to the plane." Arthur said seriously.

Katie ran off, as Arthur prepared to call in for his car.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The officer asked.

"Fraid not, sir." Arthur replied.

"Well, some free advice." The officer said, "You don't know this punk as well as I do. If you think you're doing her a favor by giving her a job, you're sadly mistaking."

Arthur looked at him confused.

"She's a lost cause." The man noted, "She'll only end up disappointing you in the long-run. Trust me, she's broken enough rules to know that things are wrong by now."

"Rest assured, officer." Arthur told him, "She's not worthless. I'll say that with the upmost of certainty."

"Your call." The officer said, "Have a good night."

"You too." Arthur replied.

….

Later, The Spec Ops Plane…

Luckily, Katie did not have any major injuries received from her bout with the car. Arthur's car was now taken in for repairs to the damage they sustained when crashing it, and so Arthur had to take a long talk to his protégé in his office onboard the Spec Ops Plane

"That was a very stupid thing you did, Katie." Arthur pointed out, "But you did well. Your little stunt gave me the perfect opportunity to stop Agent Sitwell from getting Skye and Simmons. This stays between us obviously, but I think I feel good right now…"

He stopped and noticed that Katie was looking away from him.

"Katie?" Arthur asked, "What's wrong?"

Katie continued to stare off into the distance, avoiding his gaze.

"I didn't do it for that." She said, "I don't want to be in S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore."

…

**Dun! Dun! Duuuuunnnnnn! So is Katie really out of S.H.I.E.L.D.?! Will Arthur regret his decisions on breaking the rules?! And just who is this mysterious figure and how do they know Arthur so well?! All those questions and more will have to wait to be answered, my friends. Fortunately, I promise the update this time will not take as long as this one did. Until then, reviews and comments are appreciated just as long as there's no flames.**

**Oh, and as always, I own NOTHING! This is for fan-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! See you next time!**


	9. Maturity

**Hi, everyone! No, your eyes do not deceive you! ANOTHER FANFIC CHAPTER IN THE SAME DAY! This one was written up a while ago, and while it's short, it will contain some important things and shows Katie being pushed to new limits as Arthur begins his change into a less aggressive agent himself. Hope you all enjoy this second update. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purpopses only, so PLEASE DON'T SUE! Other than that, enjoy.**

_**The Spec-Ops Plane, Arthur William's Office…**_

Arthur sat across from Katie who kept constantly avoiding his gaze.

"You mind repeating that?" Arthur asked.

"I didn't steal your car to distract Agent Sitwell." Katie said louder so he could hear it more clearly, "I did it for myself because it seemed fun and I don't want to be in S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore."

Arthur sighed.

"Why would you do this?" Arthur asked, exhaustedly, "I was actually starting to believe in you, Katie! You disobeyed direct orders and almost got people killed as a result of your incompetence. Why?! And don't tell me it was because you thought you were doing bad. You were breaking new records, Katie! You…"

"I DID IT BECAUSE THEY LAUGHED AT ME!" Katie yelled.

Arthur was taken back.

"I'm sorry?" He asked.

"They were all laughing at me!" Katie said, with a bit of tears starting to swell up in her eyes, "The other recruits! Even the nice ones! I overheard them saying how I wasn't good enough! That I didn't have the skills, or the brains, or the right idea of mission parameters…"

She stopped and covered her face with her palms.

And for the first time, Arthur Williams actually felt sorry for Katie Sheila.

"No." She said, "I don't want to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or a Rising Tide member anymore. I thought I could make it but I…I'm just a street girl. I'm not like you and I never will be. Those two girls I was with? Their names are Abby and Tabatha. They're two girls who are still at that orphanage I grew up in. They're good people, but they're obviously poor and often get harassed by the local drug dealer, Daryl. I try to make things better by stealing stuff for them, or just trying to have fun in general. But I realize now nothing I do makes a difference. The world just sees me as some scumbag and there's nowhere else for me to go. But home's the one place I don't get the wind kicked out of me for being poor, if I just do as I'm told."

Arthur just looked at her, allowing Katie to fight back the tears before he walked over to her.

"Hey." He said, putting his hands on her shoulders, "I'm sorry. I think I know something that might help."

He got up and motioned over to his desk.

"Do you know why I keep all this stuff here?" He asked.

Katie wiped her nose with her sleeve and looked confused. All that was there were just some old photos or some old plane models.

"No." She admitted.

"All this stuff is something I've brought for every salary my mission's paychecks allow me. For every forty-two times I've ever stopped a terrorist attack, I can afford enough to earn one model plane. For every seventy times I've disabled a rouge submarine, I can get one photo. The rest of my paycheck allows me to have a nice hotel when I'm off-duty and the rest I use for food and other necessities. I originally brought this stuff to fool the people at S.H.I.E.L.D. into thinking I was doing extra things outside of my job, but you've just helped me realize it served another purpose, Katie. It's a testament to the fact that as I've explained before, S.H.I.E.L.D. is nothing like an action movie where the main hero makes millions of dollars in one mission."

Katie looked at him confused, wondering why he was sharing this stuff with her.

"Wha?" She asked, "So you don't earn millions of dollars?"

Arthur chuckled lightly.

"No." He admitted, looking at her, "It's not as easy as it seems. That's something I should've told you earlier. Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent isn't about getting fast cars, or partying in nightclubs with unlimited cash. It's about helping those who can't afford it even if they don't realize it."

He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look…" He said, "Would you stay on if I took you on as my apprentice full-time? I'd show you the ropes of being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, take you out to the field on all the high-profile missions with me, show you the places to get your suits, explain how to talk properly and all that."

Katie looked at him amazed and was surprised when he actually gave a small smile.

"I'm sorry I misjudged you." He apologized, "I had problems fitting in when I first got recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. and it seems you're having the same problems. I can pull one final string to try and get you in, but I need you to agree to this if you're willing for one more chance."

Katie stood there thinking for a minute. Then she smiled.

"All right, I guess." She said, "I suppose I got nothing else to lose."

"Good girl." Arthur smiled.

Without warning, he threw his other back hand against Katie's neck. Seconds later, she felt a prick in her skin and was out cold before she hit the ground.

…...

_**Later, Japan…**_

Katie coughed as her eyes fluttered open. The first thing she felt was her body against a gravelly surface. It felt hard and rough. Getting up, she saw to her astonishment that she was standing in the middle of what appeared to be Tokyo without any clothing save for only a pair of underwear, some socks, and a bra.

Worst yet, there were already tourists and citizens stopping to point and laugh at her.

"Oh Jesus Christ!" Katie declared, trying to cover herself up.

"_Katie?"_ She heard Arthur's voice ask in her ear, _"You're awake, I take it?"_

"What the actual hell, Arthur?!" Katie demanded, "What's going on?!"

"_I'm sorry, Katie."_ Arthur said, as apologetically as possible, _"This is the only way I could find for you to stay in S.H.I.E.L.D. I convinced Hill and Hand for one final test as Director Fury has been absent as of late. This is the actual first S.H.I.E.L.D. mission where you're on your own, so don't expect me to hold your hand through this entire thing. The basic setup is that S.H.I.E.L.D. has tracked down an infamous businesswoman and you need to capture her and bring her back to the states before an innocent man is executed because of her. You also need to catch a plane back here to the states within 24 hours or you're done and there's no retries. The person's name is Melissa Gold, and somewhere where you are, you have an accomplice nearby who will give you the passport you need to come back to the states once you have Ms. Gold in custody."_

At that moment, Katie heard a police siren as a Japanese Police Car pulled up.

"_And I think that's going to be difficult to accomplish while you're explaining to the guards what you're doing here half-naked in the middle of Japan. Good luck, Katie. I believe in you."_ Arthur said as the transmission cut out.

At that moment, a Japanese Police officer got out and marched straight over to Katie.

"Jigoku anatahaderedsu ka?!" The man said.

"Uh…" Katie said, trying to think, "I'm sorry. I don't understand Japanese that well…"

"Jigoku anatahaderedsu ka?!" The man repeated, brandishing his gun at her.

Katie thought quickly, but then gave up.

"Oh, screw it." She declared, head-butting the guy.

"Alright." She said, taking his clothes, "Normally I wouldn't do this, but I need transport and clothes, so I kill two birds with one stone."

Within a few seconds, she was all dressed in the officers clothes and had him handcuffed to a nearby lamppost.

"Oaky," Katie said, looking at the GPS, "I might not remember the language, but there's no reason a keyboard shouldn't be built the same way as an English one is."

She typed in Mellisa Gold and found one address.

"God." She said to herself, "Please let me be right."

With that, she drove off.

….

_**Soon…**_

Katie pulled up to a giant mansion. It seemed like a cross between an American Millionaire Mansion and that of an ancient Japanese Palace like the ones she had seen in cartoons and anime when she was younger. As she parked the car, she heard something pounding in the back of the car.

"What the hell?" She asked.

Getting out, she opened the truck and was surprised to find a man who was tied up in rope bonds and a piece of duct tape on his mouth, lying in the trunk. He wore a fancy blue suit and red tie, and had tanned skin and short greying black hair.

"Ah." Katie said, as she began to untie him, "And who are you exactly?"

As she freed his hands and legs, she suddenly heard a voice calling out from the top of the mansion.

"Keisatsu! Wareware wa koko de keisatsu o mortte iru! Sorea o korosu!" A Japanese man in a well-tailored suit yelled, as more Japanese men dressed in similar fashion joined their friend and began firing at the two bellow.

"Dammit!" Katie swore as she and the man got back into the car and she sped off, "Who the hell is this woman?! Why is she doing this?!"

Katie heard the man from the trunk struggling in the backseat. She glanced behind her view in the rear-view mirror and saw him rip the piece of tape off from his mouth.

After taking a few deep breaths, he finally spoke and shocked Katie with what he said.

"Because this is the home of Melissa Gold, you moron!" He said, in a slight Japanese accent, "She's one of the world's leading drug extorters for MGH! The Mutant Growth Hormone! She's a drug lord!"

"Wait!" Katie declared, "You speak English?!"

"I never said I didn't." He replied, "Ibra Kanazaki. I was one of Ms. Gold's employees before she left me at a raid, and I was accused of the mastermind behind the operation. You are?"

Katie paused for a second and replied.

"Katie Shiela. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." She introduced, "At least I will be if I can just find a way to bust in there and…"

Suddenly, a thought struck her mind.

"Wait…" She asked, "You've got any weapons in this thing? Any flash bang devices?"

"Yes. They're in the trunk under a secret compartment." Mr. Kanazaki answered, "What were you thinking?"

…

_**Soon…**_

"Now we will find this policewoman imminently." Melissa gold told her fellow bodyguard in their native Japanese language, "Then we will see just how this policewoman managed to track me down and…"

She was cut off by the sound of an explosion, followed by rapid gun fire from outside and then machine guns bursting inside the room as all of the other bodyguards dropped to the ground dead.

Melissa Gold frowned as she looked up to see the young policewoman whom she just now noticed wasn't even Japanese, holding the guns to her.

"Okay," Katie asked, "I'm running a bit late on time here, so I gotta ask…do you have a chopper we can get to?"

….

_**The Hub, Later…**_

Arthur Williams stood in the hangar right next to Phil Coulson, who was taking some R&amp;R time with his team before they headed out. Phil had left with his team disobeying orders to save Fitz and Ward, and it looked like Arthur's work paid off in the end. Now it was time to see if Katie could complete her own mission on her own.

"Mind if I join?" A new voice asked.

The two turned to see Grant Ward heading towards them.

"Ward." Arthur nodded.

"Williams." Ward replied.

"It's quite all right, Ward." Phil replied, "We're just waiting for Arthur's protégé to return from her mission of retrieving Melissa Gold."

"She's not gonna make it." Ward said, "No offense, Williams, but she stole your car and smashed it up bad. She seems like a walking time bomb that's waiting to go off. And if she isn't back within the next ten minutes…it doesn't look like she's really S.H.I.E.L.D. material after all."

"Funny." Arthur said, "I think I read somewhere you said the same thing about Skye and now it looks like you're trying to play the Football Jock to her Cheerleader."

Ward was about to say something, when suddenly a plane zoomed into the area.

"Hold your fire." Arthur said, as the other armed agents ran into the room.

The doors opened, as the agents grabbed their guns, preparing for the worst. To their surprise, however, Mellissa Gold emerged, handcuffed and with a piece of tape over her mouth. Katie emerged from the plane wearing the garb of a Japanese Policeman, leading her to the agents.

"What kind of Criminal Drug Lord doesn't have a plane?" Katie grinned.

"What the hell…?" Ward declared, utterly shocked and horrified at the same time, "How? How did you do it?"

"I took all that I learned and applied it to every action film I watched, and then did the rest on my own." Katie said, smiling before turning to Arthur, "Oh, and I set the victim free and he's back home with his wife and kids now. All charges have been dropped. The local police found a number of documents proving the man's innocence and the confirmation of Melissa Gold's actions."

"You see, Ward?" Coulson asked, "Arthur was right. Sometimes putting your faith in something besides the system does turn out for the best."

She looked back at Ward.

"Wait! You're Agent Ward? The guy who accused Arthur of taking steroids when he beat you in a race?" She asked surprised, "You actually look a bit…laid back than I imagined."

Arthur smiled back at her.

"Well done, Katie." He said putting his hand on her shoulder, "Now how about we get you fixed up?"

He walked with her back to his plane, but turned his head so he could give one last message.

"See you, Phil." He responded, "Nice chat, Ward."

….

_**Later…**_

Things had been pretty nice since the incident in the hub over the last few weeks. News had been relatively quiet, and so this gave Arthur the perfect opportunity to keep Katie in shape and hone her senses.

Since then, Arthur had helped her study the ways of proper posture, speech, and etiquettes with some side help from Jessica and Faye. Katie had learned the proper walk of an agent without looking too inconspicuous, but at the same time had a feeling that demanded authority be given to her. She had also learned the proper way of eating which would be how to sit at a table with the wrists touching the table and not the hands or elbows. Anything else would be unacceptable.

That was just one of the many tricks to being an agent that Katie had learned.

Now, Katie was ready for her first official suit and makeover.

Arthur sat in the waiting room of the location of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s official tailor. Katie was imminently given a list to look over as Arthur waited outside for her to finish. He made sure to give the tailors the specific instructions as to what dress she should wear and how it should look on her, as well as her appearance from now on.

He smiled to himself as his phone showed him the latest data. He had been on the lead of this case involving his Mother, and it appeared that he finally had a break in the case. At that moment, one of the dressers emerged from the room and nodded at him, indicating Katie's tailoring and make-up was done. Arthur nodded back and Katie was brought out from the dressing room.

Arthur was impressed with the work that was done on her.

Katie was now dressed in a gray-blue suit and pants with a white dress shirt worn underneath. She also wore a blue-and-white striped tie and a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent's Standard Multi-tool kit pocket watch. On her feet were a pair of black Oxford shoes which almost seemed to shine brightly. Additionally, Katie's hair had been straightened out and her face seemed more clear than usual.

"We've given her some extra makeup and redone her hair for the effect, as you requested, Agent Williams." One of the tailors responded, emerging from behind the curtains, "Oh, and we gave her the secret gun case you requested, so everything she's carrying looks dangerous."

Katie put one hand on her hip, smiling.

"What do you think?" She asked.

Arthur smiled.

"That'll do." He said, "Now let's get your gear."

…

_**Later, Brooklyn Antiques…**_

Arthur and Katie walked into the store where an old woman was looking after the counter.

"Morning." Arthur greeted, "We're here for Item 84."

The woman smiled, but Katie could tell there was a suspicious look to her.

"Silver or Bronze?" The woman asked.

"Neither." Arthur answered, "Gold."

The woman's suspicious eyes suddenly faded and she gave an appropriate smile.

"Go right in, Mr. Williams." She said.

"Thank you." Arthur replied, leading Katie into a back room where a large mirror was hung on the wall from.

"Put your palm straight on the center of there." Arthur instructed.

Katie did so and to her shock, a green outline of her hand appeared on there.

"Welcome, Agent Katie Sheila." A female computer voice said, "Level 7. Field Agent."

With that, the mirror opened up revealing a secret room full of guns and other gadgets. A big grin suddenly appeared on Katie's Face.

"Oh, yes!" She declared, "Come. To. Mamma."

"You like it?" Arthur asked.

"Most definitely!" Katie declared, looking at all the objects around her.

"Hold still for a second." Arthur said. Katie did so as Arthur quickly took off her cufflinks and replaced it with new ones that looked similar to the one that he had taken off.

"Now." Arthur said, "Give your best impersonation of a scumbag millionaire's greeting."

Katie stood up straight and responded with extending her middle finger.

"Cute." Arthur said, sarcastically.

He brought his right arm up and turned the cufflink on his suit with his opposite hand. Suddenly, a sharp pin came up out of there.

"Woah!" Katie exclaimed, "That is cool!"

"To deactivate," Arthur explained, "Turn it the other way. This contains a special serum that renders all bodily function control of a person's body immobile for about 24 Hours."

"Sweet." Katie explained.

"So," Arthur smiled, "Shall we Agent Sheila?"

"Absolutely, Agent Williams." She replied with a grin.

….

_**Later, The Spec Ops Plane…**_

Needless to say, the rest of the team was impressed with Katie's new appearance and posture. Katie no longer walked like some shady street girl, but rather now walked with her stomach and backside tightened giving her an elegant walk resembling that of a gentlewoman. It was most fitting given her new outfit.

"You look good, Katie." Sabrina complimented.

"Feeling good." Katie replied.

"Alright." Arthur said, leading them into his office, "Here's our next mission. Based on the information I gathered at the Hub, it appears that we will be making a quick stop at San Diego."

"Why there?" Katie asked.

"Because apparently there's been something going down at Hammer Worldwide Systems that has me worried." Arthur said, spinning around to activate his TV screen. Instantly, an image came up of Justine and Sasha Hammer standing in front of a giant crowd by a podium.

"We spend over two-million-dollars each year on cellular communication." Sasha explained, "Each year, that price gets higher, and your phones get no guarantee that satellites will keep them in check with the growing threat of metahumans in this day and age."

"But now," Justine grinned, "For a limited Time, Hammer Worldwide Systems will be launching the first satellite which will be designed specifically with defense against any metahumans that threaten its continued existence. To celebrate the occasion, we will be selling five billion Hammer Worldwide System Smartphones with touch screen and internet for free wherever phones are sold."

There was a thunderous amount of applause, but Arthur posed, making a spit screen on Sasha and Justine Hammer and zooming close into their arms. Everyone gasped. There was a scar on their arms reminiscent of the one they had seen on the clone of Arthur's Mother.

"I'm going to handle Justine's Mom." He said, "Katie, you'll be having lunch with Sasha over at their estate while I see what kind of information I can get out of Mommy Hammer."

"Do you think either one of them is Igraine?" Faye asked.

"No." Arthur admitted, "But I have a feeling they might have an idea of who Igraine is. However, I'd like to keep this secret so as to not acknowledge this person if the Hammers are working for them."

He tossed Katie a folder which she caught.

"Kate," He said, "You will be looking over the info on where you have lunch with her and what to say. Keep in character, okay?"

"Just as long as you don't try and smooch with Mrs. Hammer, okay?" She winked.

"Very funny." Arthur replied sarcastically.

….

_**Later…**_

Katie sat in the limo across from Sasha Hammer. They had met around two hours ago, and Katie's cover story was that she had been assigned to talk with her about funding on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. to fund the group down there.

"I'm surprised you have enough money to fund our project, Ms. Shiela." Sasha admitted, as the limo took a right turn.

"Well," Katie smiled, working her lies, "It seems fitting now that I've been given a promotion. Did you know we actually make all of our money from the people at Red Cross and Goodwill Aids?"

"Ha!" Sasha laughed, buying Katie's cover-up story, "Amazing what America will do nowadays, right?"

"Well." Katie said, "Do we have a deal?"

Sasha looked a bit regrettable, and turned away. It was then that Katie noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Sasha was holding the back of her head, but she was tapping it gently. It was almost like she was doing it in Morse code. Sasha waited for a few minutes before looking at Katie again.

"Look." She said, "We're at lunch now, so why don't I fill you in after we fill up."

Katie felt honestly nervous like someone was about to pull a gun on her, but held her fears behind a curious face.

"Where are we, exactly?" She asked.

Suddenly, there was a squawking sound and then the sound of someone over a grainy loudspeaker.

"Hello. Welcome to Friendly's. How may we help you?"

"Uh, I'll have the number five salad." Sasha told them, "And you, Katie?"

"I'll have the same as well." Katie told her.

Sasha nodded.

"Good choice." She said.

….

_**Later, the Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Katie re-entered the meeting room. She had lunch with Sasha and unfortunately nothing came up in the meeting other than the facts that Sasha was a pawn in this plan by this Igraine person, and that they could apparently communicate using morose code. Fortunately, that little information was helping Arthur as he fed the facts he had retrieved into the Spec-Ops Bus computers. Katie had also been polite when leaving Sasha following their lunch and discussions, thanking her for being such a "friendly" person. It felt good to use that kind of classic spy wit in the field when something didn't go as planned.

Apparently, Arthur got more or less of the same.

Finally, some information came up on Arthur's screens.

"Okay." He said, "So far, what we know is that based on this communication we discovered, whoever this Igraine person is, they've gotten ties to Project Centipede."

"What's Project Centipede?" Katie asked.

"What Agent Coulson's team's been looking into." Arthur explained, "I put in a call to Phil and his team, but they aren't responding right now. Last I heard though, they were on a mission with Mike Peterson. One of those recruits who gets recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D. after spending enough time at a bad organization to know to stop and use their gifts to help us. Point being, we know it's Centipede based on the form of communication they were using."

Arthur pulled up a holographic image of a cybernetic-like eyeball.

"This," Arthur explained, "Was what Coulson's team reported Centipede's victims were using. It apparently allows people to 'see' what poor test subject gets this stuck in their eye, and receive instructions through the eye that only the wearer can see."

"So what's our next move?" Faye asked.

"We'll know as soon as Agent Coulson and his team respond." Arthur said.

Just then, a logo appeared on the holograms indicating a message from Coulson.

"Right on time." Arthur smiled, opening the communications, "Ah, Agent Coulson. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Arthur!" May's voice replied, "Agent Coulson's missing."

The entire Spec-Ops Plane Inhabitants looked at the communications hologram shocked.

"WHAT?!" Arthur demanded.

"He was picked up a while ago when Centipede tried blackmailing Mike Peterson into working for them again. They then asked for Coulson and he gave himself over willingly, and they killed Mike shortly afterwards. We're mobilizing all available agents now."

"Right, Agent May." Arthur said, "Just tell us where you need us to be and…"

There was a sudden burst of static as the hologram suddenly went into a static screen.

"Agent May?" Arthur asked, becoming concerned, "AGENT MAY, RESPOND!"

He was met with the hissing and crackling of static for a full minute before a voice spoke. It sounded almost nerdy-like mixed with a bit of an electronic voice-box filterer.

"Hello, Agents." The voice said, "Is this a bad time?"

"What the hell?!" Bruce asked, "How'd this happen?! We put in security measures!"

"Oh, your little security was quite easy for us to bypass." The voice responded, "But enough about that."

"Yeah." Arthur said, "So whom are we talking to?!"

"Just refer to us as the Trinity of Torture." The voice responded, "We come bearing a game for you, Agent Williams. Courtesy of your…accomplice Igraine. It's a little game that should not take any more of your time and before you know it, you'll be back and tracking down Agent Coulson again. Oh, and don't try tracking us. You won't find us anywhere on the map."

Arthur groaned, as he saw all attempts to trace the call ended with failure.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Come to Bethel, Maine." The voice said, "Address is 10239, Vineword Rd. If you're confused, I'm sure your team biologist would be more than happy to explain. See you soon, Arthur Williams."

With that, the feed was lost, and the team could hear May's voice fading back in.

"-MS! Can you hear me?"

"May…" Arthur said, sighing, "We just had a break-in from Igraine. We're going to investigate."

"Out of the question." May replied, "Whoever broke in wants you to be distracted…"

"They mentioned Coulson meaning they must know where he's being held." Arthur explained, "You do your part, and we'll see where ours leads us."

There was a pause before May responded.

"Very well." She said, "Good luck, Arthur."

"And to you, May."

With that, he turned to Sabrina who was backing away from the team nervously.

"Something you'd like to explain, Sabrina?" He asked.

**So another cliffhanger, folks. This next chapter might take longer to write, but I promise I will try to get it out as soon as possible. Until then, reviews and comments are appreciated! Hope you enjoyed! And as always, I own NOTHING. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so PLEASE DON'T SUE!**


	10. Ghosts

**Hi, folks. Well, here's the latest chapter as I promised. However, this one is sure to be a doozie as now we're getting weaved in further into the tangent AoS Season 1 Plotlines. And if you think this is just the end…then where the heck is your brain at, true believers? Anyways, hope you enjoy this one as much as I did writing it. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purpopses only, so PLEASE don't sue. Other than that, enjoy!**

_**The Spec-Ops Plane Meeting Room…**_

Sabrina backed up against the wall as the other agents surrounded her. She could clearly see that Arthur was none too pleased with the little revelation and unanswered questions he had now regarding Sabrina's knowledge of the intruders.

"Sabrina." Arthur said, seriously, "Who was that?"

Sabrina lowered her head to the ground and sighed. There was no way getting out of this now. She was a horrible liar, and it was only a miracle that Arthur had not asked her about this part in her life she never wanted to revisit ever again.

"His name's Monty Bernado." Sabrina said.

"Don't know that person." Arthur admitted.

"He was a small-time theif back when you were rising up as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, so I doubt you noticed or heard of him." Sabrina explained.

"So how do you know him?" Arthur asked.

Sabrina looked up and everybody could see that she had tears forming in her eyes.

"Because he killed my brother." She answered.

The team was taken aback as Sabrina folded her arms and turned away from them, not wanting to be seen this way.

"Years before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," She elaborated, "I was usually ignored by the rest of my family. My Mother and Father never cared for me, but my older brother, Samuel…he at least gave me some attention. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep me from feeling like I didn't exist."

She paused before continuing again.

"When I was 13…" She explained, "Mom and Dad went out for a party night, leaving him to look after me. While we were asleep, Monty broke into our house with his gang. Samuel told me to stay where I was while he checked it out. Then I heard a gunshot and despite telling him I'd do what I was told, I ran to see what had happened…and…"

The tears on Sabrina's face were now flowing like a waterfall as she held back some sniffles.

"I found him dead on the floor with a knife in his hands…" She admitted, "He'd tried to defend himself but ended up with a bullet in the head."

She turned around to face her teammates who looked at her surprised. Before Arthur could say something, Faye quickly moved in and punched Sabrina right in the face.

"FAYE!" Arthur declared, as she began to throttle Sabrina by her throat.

"AND YOU KEPT THIS INFORMATION FROM US?!" Faye demanded, as Katie and Jessica tried to move her away, "IT'S BAD YOUR FAILED TO BRING THIS UP SOONER, BUT IF YOU KNOW THESE GUYS, YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD US SOONER! NOW WE KNOW THEY KNOW WHO IGRAINE IS, WE COULD'VE TRACKED AND CAUGHT THEM SOONER AND SAVED EVERYBODY A WHOLE LOT MORE TROUBLE!"

She managed to move her hand forward enough to pull down Sabrina's right sleeve revealing a long scar along her arm

"Something else you'd like to explain?!" Faye asked.

"Faye, stop this!" Katie said, pulling her teammate back, as Faye finally let go of Sabrina who began to take deep breaths of air as Bruce went to help her.

"C'mon, Katie!" Faye said, "It's obvious she's working for Igraine. How else would you explain that scar?!"

"She's not, Faye!" Jessica declared, "And you know why?! Because if she was working for Igraine, we'd be dead by now and she would've blown up taking the plane and us with her!"

Faye stopped as Sabrina recovered her composure.

"It's true…" She said, weakly as she recovered her voice, "This was my own doing. I accidently tripped after I took the knife and tried stabbing Monty and his gang. I wanted revenge and I wanted to make them pay. I did manage to disable them, and then the cops came and assured me they'd be getting the chair. That's when my parents decided to send me away. That's the whole reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place. I didn't want to hurt anyone but I wanted to save people as well."

"So how exactly are they back now?" Jessica asked, keeping a tight grip on Faye's arm.

Sabrina looked at Bruce as everyone else looked on in suspicion.

"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But a few times a week I try writing on my own personal phone. I usually write notes to Samuel, which might sound stupid, but it's the only way I can keep him alive. A few months before I joined the team, I received an e-mail saying that it was from Monty and his gang, and that they were going to kill me, and make me suffer. A few more times during the past months these threats have kept coming in and I fear that it's all come true. I asked Bruce if he could help and he had some…rather disturbing results."

Bruce nodded, as Sabrina stood up straight again, and he let go of her.

"This is correct." He said, "I did this in secret because Sabrina entrusted me to. She asked me to try and find out where these people were sending her the letters from."

….

_**The Spec Ops Plane,**_

_**A few days after Arthur's team had formed…**_

Bruce was in his room, playing his Call of Duty on the screen in his bedroom. Sure, he felt a bit under pressure by Arthur, but he hoped that everything would sort itself out by the end. He was racking up points when there was a soft knock at the door.

Turning his game off, he opened his door to see Sabrina standing there, looking a bit worried while she rubbed one arm.

"Hi." She said.

"Hey." Bruce replied.

"How's everything going with you?" She asked, "I uh…I hope I didn't wake you up or anything."

"Nope." He said, looking at her concerned, "Sabrina…I don't mean to be rude, but what's wrong with you? You seem a little sad about something."

Sabrina looked at him seriously.

"I need to step in for a second, okay?" She asked.

Bruce let her in, and she quickly shut the door pulling out her phone.

"No matter what happens." Sabrina explained, "This stays between us. Promise?"

"Okay." Bruce said, "Now please tell me what's happening?"

Sabrina showed him her phone and he saw she had a text from an unknown source.

"Dear Sabrina," He read, "How's life been treating you? Do you think you're safe with S.H.I.E.L.D., that you can use it to close one chapter on your life, and begin a new one? Well tough luck, kid. Me and my friends are going to come back for you and kill everyone you've made friends with in your current life. So if you haven't managed to make friends with anyone in your new organization, you'd better start pushing them away because that way we will torture and break you before letting you taste the cold embrace of death. We'll be back. With warm regards, Monty Bernado."

Bruce finished reading and looked up at Sabrina surprised.

"He's a small-time crook who I encountered before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," Sabrina said, "He broke into my house when I was 13 and killed my older brother. Afterwards they got the chair and I left my home to do something with my life. Hence why I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., hence why I had been so secretive with my past, and so on."

"Sabrina…" Bruce said, holding her tightly, "I'm sorry. I can't even imagine how that felt."

Sabrina cried into him and eventually pulled away.

"But how can this Monty Bernado guy be contacting you if he got the chair?"

"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But I saw him get the chair on TV. They had it shown on the news and I watched him and his other friends get electric chair. But that's why I came to you."

She looked at him, wiping her nose and sniffing.

"I need you to try and find out how they're contacting me, and if it's really them, or if they're just some agents using their guise. Please, Bruce…it was hard enough for me to come to somebody for help, lord knows there's only a few people I would actually trust not to snap and break upon hearing this news. Please don't make me have to beg…"

"Sabrina." Bruce said, seriously, "I would NEVER do that. Especially not now. Don't worry, I'll keep this a secret as best I can from everyone else."

"Thank you, Bruce." Sabrina smiled, weakly.

"Thank you for being honest." Bruce replied.

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane,**_

_**Now…**_

"So what did you find out, Bruce?" Arthur asked.

"The truth is actually quite disturbing. I did some research on Monty and his two associates, and I found out that they actually all did get the electric chair. However, the e-mails were genuine, despite there being no return address. This is where things got…disturbing."

Everyone eyed him suspiciously as he spoke.

"There is no single place they were e-mailing her from because they were the messages themselves. Somehow it appears that they were changed into beings of pure energy with the powers to navigate and control any electronic devices."

"Possibly thanks to Igraine," Arthur said, "She finds victims related to our past and turns our ghosts on us. Clever."

"There's… one more thing…" Sabrina said.

"Of course there is." Faye replied sarcastically.

"Watch it." Arthur warned, as he turned back to Sabrina.

"When we had that time off…that time before the Purple Man incident…" Sabrina explained, "I was alone outside getting all of our gear ready to relax outside the plane…I thought I saw Samuel."

"But you said he died." Katie pointed out.

"He did." Sabrina agreed, "But it was him. The same face right down to the last detail. Then that other time when we let you say those final words to your mom? I spotted him out of the corner of my eye passing by us again. I did more research on people with similar faces and I found a match; Edgar Dalit. He's a businessman for used cars working in the general DC Area, and currently is dating an exchange student from New York named Mimi."

"Do you think it's another trap by Igraine?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know." Sabrina admitted, "But when I saw him, his eyes gave me this look that Samuel would give me when he would remind me that I'd never be alone. It happened on both occasions."

"You realize you've admitted to breaking a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. rules in the book." Faye reminded her.

"Oh shut the hell up, Faye." Sabrina declared, "I've had enough of your crap. You know you're starting to sound like Arthur before he grew a conscious."

"At least I'm being concerned with the safety of everyone here!" Faye shot back.

"QUIET!"

Everyone stopped arguing and looked at Arthur who's single word managed to break the chaos and silence his team.

"As of right now," He said, taking a deep breath, "We have two possible leads on Igraine. We also know that Agent Phil Coulson has been captured and this Monty Bernado guy seems to have resurrected himself from the dead along with his partners and Sabrina's older brother as well. They seem to have information as to where Phil and Igraine is, and as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it's our job now to take them down and save our fellow Agent."

He looked over at Faye.

"We are all going to work together now." He said, eying everyone else in the room, "I'm pissed off at Sabrina as well. I admit it. But right now people are counting on us, and our little petty fighting isn't going to get us any further. So here's what's going to happen; Katie and I are going to investigate this Edgar Dalit guy. Sabrina will come with us only as a consultant. Jessica and Faye will go with Bruce to the location that the Trinity of Terror asked us to go to. We find out what we can, take these guys down, get Phil back and hopefully find a way to close the book on this Igraine person forever. Do I make myself clear."

Faye looked at the ground, but nodded. The rest of the team soon followed suit.

"Good." He said, "Now let's move out."

….

_**Later, Washington DC, Outside the Home of Edgar Dalit…**_

Arthur sat behind the front wheel of his S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued Black Honda Accord, which had thankfully been repaired since Katie's incident with it. Katie sat in the passenger's seat while Sabrina sat behind Arthur. From what Arthur learned, there were two other members to Monty Bernado which made up this so-called 'Trinity of Terror' that they referred to themselves as. Monty's best man according to the old police files Arthur had dug up was named Carlito Placebo, a former small-time thief who murdered his own girlfriend after he caught her engaged in doing the mattress jig with some middle-aged guy behind Carlito's back. The muscle of the group was Lambo Leotardo, who was unfortunately an ADHD-born child raised by the wrong types of people.

"So do you think that Faye and Jess can really take these guys down?" Katie asked.

"They should be able to." Arthur theorized, as the group watched the man described as Samuel's double walk over to the house on the other side of the street from where they were parked.

The man had short dirty blonde hair, and was wearing an opened white buttoned-down T-Shirt with a blue t-shirt underneath and blue jeans with white sneakers.

"That's him." Sabrina told them.

"Okay, Sabrina." Arthur explained, "I'll let you handle this first. Just remember, you have to try and be thorough and not let him know who we really are. If something goes wrong, we'll tell him. But try to be subtle."

"Okay." Sabrina said, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting up.

She took deep breaths trying to separate her personal feelings from her task at hand. But it was difficult to do so, and the closer she got to the door, the more she felt as if her heart was going to explode from her chest from all the suspense and wordiness with regards as to whether or not this was her brother or not.

Now finally standing in front of the door, she took another deep breath and exhaled before knocking on the door. In a few seconds, the door was opened and Edgar, Samuel's look alike, was looking at her. He showed no signs of recognizing her but instead was more open to hearing whatever it was she was going to say.

"Hi…" She smiled, weakly rubbing her arm, "My car broke down a couple miles away and my phone's almost dead. Do you mind if I use your house to charge my phone, and wait for someone to help me out?"

"Uh…sure thing." Edgar said, letting Sabrina inside, "I'm actually getting ready to leave soon. I'm taking my girlfriend to a movie later tonight, but I have a couple of hours to spare."

"Thank you." Sabrina smiled, lightly.

"I'm Edgar, by the way." He said, "What's your name?"

"Katie Shelia." Sabrina lied.

"Katie…" He said, looking at her confused.

Sabrina noticed this, but hid her suspicions behind her back.

"You know…" He said, "I can't help but feel as if we've met before somewhere. Did we meet before?"

Sabrina shook her head. It was getting difficult to keep lying. She wanted to tell him 'Yes! I'm your sister and you've somehow come back from the dead with amnesia!'

Instead, she once again gave a sigh.

"No." She said.

"Well, okay…" Edgar replied, walking up some stairs in the hallway entrance, "Make yourself at home. I'm just going to get ready for my date tonight. I actually just got home believe it or not."

"Yeah…" Sabrina replied, looking at the living room.

It was small with a little TV, some shelves with various pictures of Edgar (or perhaps it was photo shopped of Samuel,) in various stages of his life. A young boy riding a bicycle, a young man in a graduation cap and gown, and a photo of a couple, a brown haired man with a brown moustache, and a middle-aged woman with dark red hair.

There was also a little lamp and a couch with two chairs. One of the chairs was placed next to an outlet. Sabrina plugged her phone in and sent her encrypted text to Arthur.

'Got in. Seems normal, but he seemed to know me again.'

She waited as Arthur replied.

'Stay there and question him. We'll be looking into related theories.'

She confirmed the order and put her phone away as Edgar finally entered the living room now dressed in a light-pink buttoned-down shirt and black trousers. He was putting on a blue-and-red striped tie as he looked over at Sabrina.

"You managed to reach anyone?" He asked.

"Yeah." She lied, "Apparently I have a friend who should be here in the next six hours or so. He owns a mechanics store so I guess we can spend time and chat if that's fine with you."

"It is." He smiled.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Outside, Arthur and Katie were looking away at the built-in touch screen computer, trying desperately to find anything that might've had a hint to what their enemies were up to.

"Arthur?" Katie asked, "You don't know how Agent Coulson came back, right?"

"No." Arthur told her, "Nobody except Director Fury does. Though I'd imagine he'd move heaven and earth to save Phil, considering he was right-hand man of Fury's operations. Why do you ask?"

"Do you think whoever this Igraine person is that's been torturing us…do you think she might be in on Phil's kidnapping?"

"Hard to say." Arthur admitted as his information that he requested came flooding in, "I know Phil and his team have said that they've been being plagued by somebody who somehow knows their every move, but it wouldn't surprise me if whoever this Igraine person is was actually working with this guy to predict all these moves."

Finally, something came up and Arthur looked at an article.

"Who's this?" Katie asked, "Professor Anber Jenkins?"

"Huh." Arthur said, surprised, "I actually remember meeting this guy, believe it or not. Saved his life once during an attack on his University."

"So what was he like?"

"Oh, the usual." Arthur replied, looking through the file information, "Genius with a high-level intelligence so well that his college professors had to make sure he wasn't cheating. He's also a part-time engineer for a couple old S.H.I.E.L.D. Tech Bot designs, though he refused to sign on full-time."

"And why's that?" Katie said, raising an eyebrow.

"He was a smart guy." Arthur admitted, "But he had this notion that all wars and the damage to our environment were all our own faults. That we were essentially too crowded on Earth and that this was just natural causes that we're engaged in many different wars which gets parts of the world flooded or wrecked by mother nature every year. So what does he have that…"

Arthur paused as he finally saw a file worth of value. Katie saw it as well and looked at it equally shocked.

"Son of a bitch." Arthur declared, unbuckling his seatbelt.

….

_**Inside…**_

Sabrina looked again at the photos of the two people on the cupboard.

"Are those your parents?" She asked.

"Yes, actually." Edgar said, looking at the photos proudly, "Great people. Always cared and tended for me whenever I needed help. Dad's currently a podiatrist, and Mom currently runs a local book store. They helped me grow as a person which is how I'm able to take classes here in Washington."

"Excuse me for asking…" Sabrina said, "But did you…did you have any brothers or sisters?"

Edgar chuckled, but Sabrina felt he was holding something back.

"No." He said, "Mom and Dad never had any other kids besides me, but…this is going to sound kind of strange…"

"Yes?" Sabrina asked, eagerly.

"I keep having this dream." Edgar admitted, "I'm in a house that's not my own, and I'm telling a young girl who I say is my sister to stay put where she is. I never see her face, but I go downstairs and then there's a bright light and I usually wake up. Does that sound weird to you?"

Sabrina was about to answer, when another new voice arose.

"That actually doesn't sound weird to us at all."

The two turned to see Arthur and Katie standing there.

"What the-?!" Edgar declared, "Who are you two?!"

"Relax, sir." Arthur assured, "I'm Agent Arthur Williams of S.H.I.E.L.D. The woman next to me is my partner, the REAL Agent Katie Sheila. The woman you've been talking to is our team biologist, Sabrina Marie Washionton."

Edgar's eyes suddenly went wide, as he looked at Sabrina.

"Sabrina…" He said, "But…I told you to stay put where you are."

"Katie, restrain Sabrina, please." Arthur demanded.

Katie quickly grabbed Sabrina by her arms, and dragged her away. Sabrina kept failing her arms everywhere, but Katie maintained a strong grip on her friend thanks to her workout regime that Arthur had put her on.

Arthur quickly tackled Edgar, keeping one of Edgar's arms behind his back and one foot on Edgar's other arm. As Edgar tried to fight back uselessly, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Team Leader took out a small laser knife from his coat pocket and activated it.

"Sabrina." He said, "I'm so sorry. I don't want to see you hurt like this, but this man is not your brother. At all."

With that, he plunged the laser knife deep into Edgar's arm which was pinned down by Arthur's foot. Cutting a line down there, Arthur finished and used his free hand to open up the wound. Sabrina gasped seeing something she hadn't counted on. She expected to see copious amounts of blood and veins from opening up the skin.

While there was blood that could be seen, it was only stains along a metal interior which seemed like a robotic skeleton arm. Lights were going on and off underneath the skin and different gauges were moving up and down along the area.

"Your brother's still dead, Sabrina." Arthur told her, simply, "Edgar is nothing more than an L.M.D. Or a Life Model Decoy. Stark invented one of these things, but S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been making prototypes with the help of one Professor Anber Jenkins who went missing a month back before turning back up towards the beginning of this week. Basically they're robots that look, act, and feel exactly like humans, except it's all pre-programed into their circuits."

"Oh god…" Edgar breathed, "I remember everything…that bitch she…"

"You know who did this to you?" Katie asked.

Edgar thought, and shook his head.

"No…" He said, "I only remember the…construction process where they built me using the brain patterns based off of Samuel Washionton that they stole from his grave. Everything during that time wasn't visible enough for me to see. But I did get a look at one woman who was in silhouette. Someone referred to her as… Igraine."

"Edgar…" Arthur said, sympathetically as he closed the cut and Katie went to retrieve some tape, "I'm sorry you had to go through this. I need to know, however, do you know anything about the current location of Agent Phil Coulson?"

Edgar sat there for a minute before nodding.

"Yes." He said, "I have the location programed into my robotic brain."

"Great." Arthur said, "Then once the team gets back from Sabrina's old home we'll head down and arrest them."

"Wait!" Edgar declared, "They're at the old home?!"

"Yes." Arthur answered, "Why?"

"They're gonna get killed!" Edgar told them, "The old home doesn't exist anymore!"

"What do you mean?!" Sabrina asked.

"You seriously never checked on the house?!" Edgar replied, shocked, "Our…I mean your parents sold the land about three years or so ago. It's now an electrical power plant meaning that they have the home advantage. Your friends are as good as dead."

"No." Arthur declared, standing up.

"Arthur?" Katie asked.

"We don't leave our team behind." Arthur said, strongly, "Coulson can wait since everybody else is looking for him. We can cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, we have to focus on saving our team, and stopping the Trinity of Torture."

"It's not going to be easy." Edgar admitted, "Even if you do somehow manage to shoot them, they'll be able to travel around to the nearest electronic device available."

"Leave that to me…" Arthur smiled, taking out his phone.

….

_**New Jersey, The Former Residence of Sabrina Marie Washionton and her family…**_

"This can't be right." Faye declared, walking cautiously into the electrical plant which occupied the area where Sabrina's house should've been.

"Tell me something I don't know." Jessica replied.

Jessica was nearly convinced that Faye was indeed the mastermind behind this whole mole thing. But at the same time, she figured Faye wasn't the true grand puppeteer and attacking her now would only make things worse. No. There was someone else pulling her strings and she was determined to find out.

Suddenly, Jessica realized she was stepping on something and stepped away gasping at what she saw. Underneath was some imprinted letters reading 'Borgodo Electric Plant. A Division of The Centipede Program.'

"What's wrong, Jess?" Faye asked.

"We need to go, now!" Jessica declared.

Before they could move, the plant almost seemed to turn on by itself and a giant blue light shot up from the power plant's engines. This light then turned into an electric dome which blocked off any chances of escape for the two. Then, three beams of light emerged from within three of the engines, forming into human bodies before becoming three humans. One was a large muscular bald man, one was a fairly-built man with a thin pencil moustache and oily black hair, and a well-built man with jet black hair smiling at the two Agents. Each were wearing black skin-tight suits with hexagons on them.

"So I see Agent Williams failed to join the party." The leader spoke, "Well, it's all right. I'm sure that we can postpone it till he gets here. Gives us time to set up a little present for him."

….

_**The Spec Ops Plane…**_

Bruce was worried. He had been left here to monitor the plane as well as Jessica and Faye's surveillance, but nothing was coming up.

"Jessica, Faye!" He declared, "What's happening?!"

Just then, he noticed another incoming message, quickly pulling it up, he saw it was Arthur.

"Bruce?!" Arthur asked, "What's happening?!"

"Jessica and Faye went to scout the area and I just lost contact with them!"

"Great." Arthur groaned sarcastically, "That means the worst fear has come to pass. Jess and Faye are in a trap and we need to stop the Trinity of Torture. We're on our way over there, but we need you to build something while we're on our way. We need you to build something that'll help us defeat them!"

"That would be nice if I knew more about how they were working their powers!" Bruce declared.

"I can help." A new voice said from the transmission.

Bruce looked confused, so Arthur focused the camera and Bruce saw to his amazement that Sabrina was sitting in the back seat next to what appeared to be the perfect recreation of her long-dead brother.

"He's a Life Model Decoy." Arthur explained, "But he's apparently in control of his own body now and says he wants to help."

"Huh." Bruce declared, "Interesting. I never thought that you'd have managed to gain a sentient A.I."

"What?" Edgar asked.

"Nevermind." Bruce said.

"Okay." The Life Model Decoy declared, blinking his eyes. Suddenly a message appeared which Bruce opened revealing schematics for a device that Bruce realized would be helpful in taking down the Trinity of Torture.

"Now there's one last problem to take care of." Arthur said, "How do we make sure the Trinity of Torture stays down?"

"I might have an idea…" Bruce said, "But your friend here needs to be in on this."

Sabrina looked at the LMD of her brother worriedly, but he gave her an assuring look before turning back to Bruce.

"Go on." He said.

….

_**Borgodo Electric Plant, New Jersey, Later…**_

Faye and Jessica tried to keep cool heads, but it was hard to when their foes could be anywhere. Turning around with their guns at the ready, both tried to listen for the closest hint of where their attackers could be. They had tried escaping only to find it was impossible as the more they ran into the wall, the more electrical current would send them flying back in pain. The only way out it seemed was to take their attackers down.

That's when Faye heard a sound and unloaded a number of rounds into an electrical engine, blasting it away. Before she had time to process what had happened, the largest of the attackers popped out from the side of an engine to her right, and grabbed her. Instantly, Faye began feeling almost a million of jolts race through her body as she screamed in pain.

Jessica heard the scream and went to help, only to be ambushed from both sides by the other two members who continued to hold her arms and charge her with an electrical current as well.

"Oh yes!" Monty Bernado laughed, "This feels great! We're gonna send your friends a deep-fried present and…"

Suddenly, they stopped charging them and the two agents fell to the ground.

"What the hell?!" Monty asked, confused, "What happened to all the power?!"

"Surprise, jackass."

The three turned to see Arthur Williams standing outside the dome next to Katie, Sabrina, and Edgar. That's when they noticed that Arthur was holding a small tablet-like device in his hand.

"Like it?" He asked, "That's something our LMD friend here came up with. I've essentially changed your body frequencies that allow you to escape through any of these engines. So there's no way out."

"And the prodigal son arrives." Monty declared, "You know, you should do your homework, Agent Williams. You might've managed to destroy our means of escape…"

He was cut off when Arthur fired a bullet into Monty's head. Then it was followed by one to Carlito and to Lambo. As they fell to the ground, Edgar suddenly twitched around and then his mouth turned into a smile.

"But you left one other exit for us." Edgar smiled, "You really are an idiot. You've just given us a means of escape through this robot body. Did you think he could really help you beat us?"

"No." Sabrina said, "But I did. Only because he was willing to make a sacrifice."

Suddenly, the Possessed-LMD looked confused.

"Sacrifice?" He asked, "What do you…"

Suddenly he began holding his head in pain.

"AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

"Monty, what did you do?!"

"Boss, what's all this stuff coming in?!"

"I don't know boys! I…I can't…"

"All we did was rewire his systems before we got here." Sabrina explained, "Now you can only get information into that thing, but you can't use it to escape or take any information out…"

"I…I can't…"

Sabrina looked away as the Life Model Decoy twitched around repeatedly and the finally gave off a small explosion. She looked back. The Life Model Decoy was now nothing more than scrap metal save for the robotic head which was now deprived of its eyes. All Sabrina could hear was the faint sound of Monty repeatedly asking 'How?'

With that, she switched the robot off, and fell to her knees, her teammates moving towards her to help consolidate her and try to make her feel better after losing her brother a second time. At least this time however, she managed to say goodbye before going into action, and she had people to help her through the experience.

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane, Soon…**_

The team was now fully assembled in the meeting room as Jessica had put in the coordinates that Samuel's LMD had given them before preforming his final act of heroism.

"Today." Arthur sighed, "One of our agents was given a pain that she never felt in a long time."

He turned to Bruce.

"This might seem weird for me to say, but I'm glad you kept the secret, Bruce. Everybody needs somebody to trust every now and then. I admit I'm still pissed at you for doing what you did, but right now, we have a new main priority. Edgar gave us the last coordinates to where they're keeping Coulson. Our mission now is to rescue him. Then we're going to find this Igraine and make her pay. We'll be coming up on the base soon. Word has it that Phil's team is also headed down there so let's try to take what Edgar gave us and make it worth a damn for what we do to help today."

Everyone nodded.

….

_**Soon, the Mojave Desert…**_

The Spec Ops plane touched down near The Bus in what appeared to be an old abandoned nuclear test sight with little homes and fake mannequin people. As the Spec Ops crew departed from the bus, they saw they were not alone. Standing outside the Bus were Melinda, Ward, Fitz, and Simmons.

"Looks like the gang's all here." Arthur declared.

"That's not all of us." May responded.

Suddenly, a black sports car pulled up and out stepped Skye wearing black clothes and sunglasses.

"Any ideas on where we'll find Phil?" Katie asked.

Just then, they heard someone screaming in pain from down below.

"That's Phil…" Skye answered.

Suddenly, a group of muscular people burst out from the surroundings.

"Crap!" Arthur declared, as everyone took cover, "Skye! You and May feel up for saving Phil with me and Katie?!"

"Yes!" Skye said.

"Okay." Arthur said to everyone else, "We'll be back!"

With that, Faye, Jessica, and Ward began unloading as Fitz and Simmons tried to come up with an idea to help.

The other agents took this opportunity to follow Arthur to where the screaming was coming from. Moving into the house which appeared to be the source of the cries of anguish, the group was met with a disturbing sight. Phil was there lying on a metal bed which looked like a tomography scanner, reeling and screaming in pain as an African American woman wearing a flower dress stood over him monitoring her.

"This is for his own good…" The woman began, but Skye and Katie slugged her in the face, knocking her out.

"Thanks." Skye said.

"Don't mention it." Katie replied.

The two then looked over Phil.

"PHIL!" Skye declared, "Are you okay?!"

"Phil!" Katie declared, "It's Katie Shelia! Remember? The girl who you helped out in The Hub?"

"I wanna die." Phil replied, "Please. Just let me die. Please! Please! Just let me die! PLEASE!"

"Dammit!" Skye swore, turning to Arthur and May who were looking over the wiring.

Eventually, they just tore the whole thing out and Phil began taking deep breaths.

"Coulson!" Arthur said.

Coulson regained his composure before nodding.

"I'm…I'm all right." He replied.

….

_**Soon…**_

The battle outside was soon easily won. With the combined efforts of Arthur and Coulson's team, the groups had managed to save Phil and arrest the woman in the flower dress. Arthur and his team were told the woman's name was Raina, who apparently had a link to the mysterious person who had haunted Coulson's team as much as Igraine had been plaguing Arthur's team.

Currently, Arthur and Katie were standing near The Bus as Phil removed Skye's monitoring bracelet which apparently limited her use of electronics on the Bus following a previous mishap with the team. Phil dismissed her and then turned his attention to Arthur and Katie.

"You both did great." He said, shaking both their hands, "Thank you for pulling through for me when I needed help the most. Especially you, Katie. I think you and Skye are on your ways to becoming the best S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents ever recruited."

"Thank you, sir." Arthur said, "But it was not without a cost."

"What do you mean?" Phil asked.

"Let's just say we can't talk about it." Arthur told Phil, "Not for security reasons, mind you, but out of respect for a friend."

Phil nodded.

"Fair enough." He replied, "Although I understand that apparently some of the higher-ups aren't very fond of what you did."

"Yeah." Arthur said, "But we've had our own little puppeteer manipulating us from the shadows. And I think that pretty soon, we're gonna be taking the fight to them. So at least we'll be able to show we have an assignment that shows our team's worth some value that'll probably get us off the hook as soon as we meet."

"Best of luck with your leads." Coulson replied, "And thanks again. Perhaps when you're all finished you can help us in taking this other guy who seems to be giving my team trouble."

"Can't make any promises, but I'll consider it." Arthur replied, "Now first things first; we need to review our stance on this thing. But we will certainly try to be there."

"Thanks." Phil said, walking off, as Arthur and Katie left.

….

_**A few days later, The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Sabrina sat in her room looking at an old photo of herself and Samuel. Things had been pretty much quiet since the incident with Edgar. Fortunately, Arthur was using this time to get some information together, and he was insisting that he was finally close to putting this whole business behind everyone. It was a photo from Sabrina's tenth birthday party. In the photo, she was wearing a small polka dotted party hat and blue shirt and jeans while Samuel had a white T-Shirt on with light blue jeans. Behind them was a small cake which he had baked that day since her parents had been gone and would clearly not get back till later that night.

Sabrina sighed, and heard a knock at her door. Quickly putting the photo away, she opened it to see it was Bruce standing there.

"Hey." He said, "How are you holding up?"

"All right." She shrugged, "I just wanted to give you something, though."

With that, she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a big hug. Bruce was surprised by this at first, but slowly returned the hug to her, putting his own arms around her back.

"Thank you for helping me out with my secret even if it didn't work out." She told him.

"Thank you." Bruce said.

Then Sabrina did something that really surprised him.

She gave him a soft kiss on his cheek.

Bruce's face suddenly went red and his expression confused as Sabrina smiled at him.

"Thanks for being such a good friend." She added, before walking off.

"Uh…" Bruce replied, trying to get over the recent events, "Thanks…Oh, Arthur needs us right now in the office."

"Oh, okay." Sabrina replied, walking back to the meeting room as Bruce followed suit.

The two straightened themselves out and entered Arthur's office. Arthur was already sitting behind his desk while Katie, Faye, and Jessica were already standing there. Arthur eyed Faye.

"Faye, I believe you have something to say?" He asked.

Faye sighed.

"I'm sorry I hit you, Sabrina." She apologized, "It's just that we've been tracking this mysterious person for so long, that I kinda jumped the gun."

"Apology accepted." Sabrina told her.

"Now, on to more important matters." Arthur explained, "Following our recent actions, The World Security Council has actually put us on their radar, and are actually considering whether or not they should stop funding our group. Fortunately, Director Fury is giving us one last chance by having Agent Tyler Boateng evaluate us. We'll be picking him up from the Hub tomorrow, and as it happens, we FINALLY have a lead on Igraine."

He pressed some buttons on his desk and a hologram came up of a middle-aged man with a long brown mullet haircut wearing a fancy suit appeared.

"THIS," Arthur said, "Is Professor Anber Jenkins. He's a genius-level robotics mechanic who currently resides as a University Professor at Harvard. He's also the man responsible for creating Edgar since besides S.H.I.E.L.D., the only other person who knows about making Life Model Decoys is Tony Stark, who's obviously a bit too busy right now to be involved with all this, what with cleaning up after the A.I.M. incident and all."

"And you think he might be with Igraine?" Katie asked.

"Exactly, Katie." Arthur said, "After we pick up Tyler, we're going to pay Professor Jenkins a visit and FINALLY get some valuable information about Igraine once and for all."

"Sir." Faye asked, "With all due respect, we should move now while we still have the time."

Arthur looked at her confused as Faye spoke again.

"Sir," She explained, "If Monty and his men were able to hack into our systems, who knows what other kind of people Igraine might have spying on us. We should move now and grab him so we have solid evidence that we managed to apprehend him sooner.

"Negative," Arthur replied, "If we do so, The Security Council might get a bad impression that we're dodging responsibilities, so we 're going to catch him tomorrow after picking up Tyler."

"But sir…" Faye pleaded.

"That's enough." Arthur said, sternly, "Now everybody else get some sleep for tomorrow. Dismissed."

Faye left regrettably. Jessica now felt like there was a bomb on the plane. She had to do something now before things got worse.

…

_**Later…**_

After the team had gone to bed, nobody woke up when the plane unexpectedly landed on the outskirts of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Therefore, nobody was aware when a mysterious figure left the plane and began walking into the town while texting on their phone.

….

_**Harvard University, Later…**_

Professor Anber Jenkins looked at his phone confused. He had been called in early because a reporter wanted to have an exclusive interview with him in his classroom before his lectures began. He had made impressive leaps with robotics and also environmental awareness, yes, but he wasn't sure why someone would go out of their way to try and talk to him like this.

As he entered his classroom, he saw a young woman was sitting on his desk waiting for him as she texted away on her phone. She appeared to be around 28, with jet fire hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing glasses and a smart suit with high heels. Looking up from her phone, she looked at him and nodded.

"Hello." He said.

"Ah." She replied, "Professor Anber Jenkins. Just the man I wanted to see. Might I also say I am a big fan of your theories on our current environmental issues."

"Yes." Professor Jenkins nodded, as he held out his hand to shake her, "Well, it is an interesting theory that I…"

He stopped when she punched him in the nose and then grabbed his neck with her arm so he'd only be able to wheeze out his answers and not call for help.

"Listen very carefully, Professor." She replied, "Someone on my team was insistent that they pick you up before me, so start talking."

"What…what do you mean?!" Anber demanded, "I never heard of another interview…"

"You know what I'm talking about!" Jessica declared, "Faye Anne Carter. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?!"

"What?! S.H.I.E.L.D.?!" Jenkins declared, "No I…I never heard of a Faye Anne Carter! You people said you'd contact me in person when you were ready!"

"Ready for what?" Jessica demanded.

"The phones…" Jenkins declared, "I was told that you would…"

He stopped and began screaming in pain. Jessica was confused. She wasn't expecting him to be in this sort of pain. Then she thought of another possibility. Pulling his sleeve up, Jessica could see that there was a scar along his arm and a beeping noise could be heard coming from there.

Her eyes widened as she attempted to leap out through the window. Unfortunately, it was then that Jenkins exploded. His body inflated greatly and then a large explosion erupted from his body consuming whatever skeleton was left of him in flames and then expanding outwards almost filling up the entire room. The explosion sent Jessica flying straight through the window without being able to protect herself. The glass shards that pierced her fortunately missed her eyes, but instead she was soon lying on the ground outside of the building with a large shard lodged into her heart. Jessica soon lost consciousness and was passed out due to the loss of both the adrenaline and most of her blood.

Students would be reporting on this soon, and they would discover that this pristine college had now become the sight of a horrible incident.

….

_**Meanwhile,**_

_**Location Unknown…**_

"DAMMIT!" The woman cursed.

"Hey, don't blame me." Her male friend said, turning around and facing away from the controls he was working, "It's not my fault that one of your men showed up sick. Remember, I have to multitask over here. I have to be playing for three teams at once."

"It's not that." Igraine scowled, "It's that this little misfit caused us to loose Professor Anber Jenkins. It seems Fury made the foolish decision of putting people who could make irrational choices on that team after all."

"Well I have good news, ma'am." The figure said, "We might still be able to play this to our advantage."

"And how do you propose that?" Igraine asked.

"Simple." The male operator smiled, "Just got word that Coulson's team is in the same situation. Apparently Coulson's protégé got shot and now they need something to save her."

"You're suggesting that they'll try to bring her back using that thing which brought Phil Coulson back from the dead?" Igraine suggested.

"Exactly. Now here's what I suggest, if you've been paying attention as I have to Phil Coulson, you'll know that ever since he found out about his…incident, he's been acting more paranoid. My thought is that whatever they did to him has affected his mental stability."

"So you're suggesting we save Jessica Smith as well, so that the process drives her insane as well."

"Phil kept repeating that he wanted to die when he recalled what happened." The man said, "With any luck, Jessica might go nuts enough to believe that cats are magical creatures from the moon. So what do you think?"

"Deception through helping others." Igraine surmised, "Perfect. But how can you assure us that Arthur and his team will leap to trying to get whatever brought Phil back?"

"I told you." The male figure smiled, "I've been playing for three teams, counting yours. I've already managed to get two people in who will definitely bring the two teams together and attempt to save their teammates."

Igraine smiled.

"Then let's sell this misdirection then, shall we?" She asked.

….

**So there you have it, folks! It's confirmed somebody's going to influence Arthur's team to help Phil out. More importantly, if you've been watching S.H.I.E.L.D. (and you should,) you probably know how Phil came back by this point. But can Arthur's team help out and get Jessica the same treatment as well?! More importantly, how will she behave once she's been treated on?! All these questions and more will be answered next time! (PS: I am planning for Sabrina and Bruce to be the FitzSimmons of the team, so let me know your thoughts.) Also, last chapter I forgot to mention that the character of Ms. Gold was based on Melissa Gold from the Thunderbolt comics; a woman with supersonic screeching noises who can create constructs by changing her voice to the right frequency. Likewise, this chapter offered another reimagining of another Marvel character; The Beetle. For those of you who played the Ultimate Spider-Man game and then looked up info on the character (as I did,) Beetle is also part of the Thunderbolts but creates his own tech suits in order to help him fight with his own weaponry. I just thought it'd be cool to reintroduce these characters not unlike the AoS show has done numerous times before (and will continue to do so afterwards.) Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one. Feel free to leave reviews just so long as they are not flames. As always, I own NOTHING except my OC's. This is for fan-purposes only, so please don't sue! See you next time. **


	11. The Mysterious Place

**Hi everyone! Welcome back to the latest chapter of 'The Spec-Ops Team!' Now before we begin, I want to address something that was brought up in the comments. In there, AwesomeGirl asked me if Bruce and Sabrina's relationship would be platonic or romantic. I would actually like to hear if you would like them to be romantically involved in the end like how Fitz and Simmons were (minus the trauma of course,) but for now it's just platonic. After all, love works in mysterious ways (believe me I know, and this comes from someone who already had six ex-girlfriends, one of which was a writer on .) There was also a question she asked me about whether or not anybody on the team would be part of one of the newest fractions introduced to the MCU on AoS that won't be having their film debut for another four years. The answer is that it will be somebody, but it'll happen in an unexpected way that I can't tell you about right now. Right now though, the main question that I'm sure is on everyone's lips is what will ultimately happen to Jessica after her injuries sustained in the last chapter? Well, read on to find out! As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! Other than that, enjoy!**

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur's eyes opened up at the sound of banging on his office door. He had fallen asleep during his routine paperwork and only now realized that the plane no longer had any turbulence.

Walking over to the door, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw Agent Tyler Boateng standing outside his door with his arms crossed, looking not to happy.

"Agent Boateng." Arthur yawned, quickly composing himself, "Apologies, but I wasn't told we landed. I do have good news. We apparently located someone who might be connected to our mysterious Igraine that's been the thorn in our side for a while. Our plan, with your permission, is to go and find a person whom we believe to have been in close contact with her, and then interrogate him until he tells us what we need to know. We'll be ready to leave when you give the word."

Boateng just continued staring at him without changing his expression.

"What?" Arthur asked.

"You honestly don't know what happened?" Boateng questioned.

He looked at Arthur as he suddenly became very concerned for what came next.

…

_**Soon…**_

The team watched as Sabrina helped bring Jessica into the medical wing alongside a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. Paramedics. Jessica was currently lying on a gurney that had some kind of glass tube over her body which was currently cut along many places with a large piece of glass lodged right in the area where her heart was.

The paramedics took almost a half hour to work on the Pilot, but to no avail.

"We found her at Harvard University." Tyler told Arthur as he stood next to him, "It looks like she went after your source alone and he got blown up as a result. Remote detonation by this Igraine person I'd imagine."

Arthur said nothing and just looked at Jessica. She had been the person who believed he could change alongside Faye, dammit! Why did she do something this monumentally stupid?!

Finally, Sabrina exited alongside the other paramedics who left the plane.

"Well?!" Arthur demanded.

Sabrina looked a bit sad as she spoke.

"We managed to remove the glass…" She said, "However, the one that went through her heart did more damage than we thought. It can't be fixed either medically or from technology. She's got about 8 hours at best before she…"

"Well I guess that's the end of her." Boateng said, as Arthur looked up angrily, "Now, let's begin the assessment with…"

Suddenly, Arthur slugged Tyler right in the face.

"How could you say that?!" He demanded, "An agent is dying in there, and you think that there's no hope left?!"

Tyler rubbed his face and then delivered a kick between Arthur's legs. Arthur staggered for a bit but quickly recovered as Tyler got back up.

"Nice try…" Arthur laughed, "But there's no way that I was unprepared for that with the films Katie's been showing me."

"Now who's being unreasonable?!" Tyler growled, tackling Arthur and punching him in the face.

Arthur just threw Tyler off him and then delivered an elbow slam to his chest. Tyler responded by grabbing his neck, as Arthur attempted to push Tyler's face away.

"STOP NOW!"

The two looked to see Sabrina standing there after a sudden and unexpected outburst.

"BOTH OF YOU STOP THIS NOW!" She continued, "THIS IS NOT A FIGHT! AN AGENT IS DYING AND WE NEED TO DO WHAT ARTHUR SAID, WE NEED TO PUT ASIDE OUR DIFFERENCES AND FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT! SO STOP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN AND START BEING LIKE MEN!"

The two looked at each other and helped themselves back up.

"Sabrina's right." Arthur said, "But we still can't let Jessica die. She was the last one with Anber Jenkins while he was alive. He might have some information for us that we can use."

Tyler sighed defeated by Arthur's logic.

"All right." He said, "We'll see how you handle this situation. And just for that I WON'T write you up for an F."

"Good thing." Arthur said, sarcastically, "Because you probably noticed even though I've been indulging in watching various action flicks, I'm still a pretty good fighter."

"Okay." Tyler agreed, "But we still have the problem of where we can go to get Jessica fixed up now."

"Excuse me?"

The two turned to see a new sight. Standing in the doorway was none other than Agent John Garrett and his new trainee Agent Antoine Triplett.

"Can we come onboard?" Garrett asked, sarcastically, "I know Arthur's in the middle of his assessment here, but we just got new orders and since our plane's being used for another assignment, we were wondering if we could catch a ride on yours."

"Agent Garrett." Arthur said, cautiously, "Agent Triplett. How did you both get onboard?"

"Ha!" Garrett chucked, "With my clearance, I'm allowed to get into all sorts of places."

"So where do you need to go?" Arthur asked, "We're kind of in the middle of a life-and-death situation here."

"Funny you should mention that." Garrett smiled, "Because the reason of our little trip involves death itself. Seems like Coulson's new protégé Skye had an accident where she was shot by some assailant, and now Phil's taking too much time to interrogate the man responsible."

"Then I know where they might be headed." Arthur explained, "To Tahiti."

Garrett looked at Arthur confused.

"You know how apparently Coulson's story revolves around him coming back from the dead after being treated in Tahiti?" Arthur asked, "Well, if Skye's been shot, then my best guess is that they'll be heading there to try and recover whatever it was they used on Phil to save her. This fortunately falls under what we need to do as well."

He pointed at Jessica's tube and Garrett and Antoine looked inside surprised.

"Damn." Antoine declared, looking at Arthur, "What the hell happened to her?"

"She was caught in an explosion and her heart was ruptured." Arthur explained, "She was doing her own work to try and take down someone known as Igraine, who's been plaguing our group for quite some time. We need to get her healed as well so she can tell us everything we need to know."

"Sounds like a plan." Garrett told him, "So we're doing a team-up then? Us and Phil's team to save some fellow agents? I'm down with that. Lucky for you I know the current location of Phil's plane."

"Then let's get going then." Arthur said, as they started walking off.

Just then, Antoine felt someone tap his shoulder and he turned around to see a young girl with neatly combed blonde hair wearing one of the finest S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued suits and ties they had to offer.

"Hi." She said, "You must be Antoine Triplett, "I'm Katie Shelia. Arthur's protégé. It's an honor to meet you despite the circumstances."

She held out her hand and Antoine shook it.

"Nice to meet you too." He said.

"Mind if we walk and talk?" Katie asked.

"Sure." Antoine said as the two agents began to move.

"I've read your file and I am really impressed with your history." She pointed out, "It's just an honor to meet someone who's grandfather served with the Howling Commandos and Captain America."

"Thanks." Antoine said, "Though I'd rather not talk about it if that's all right. I'll just let you know that was one of my reasons for joining S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Understood." Katie said as they began walking up the stairs that lead to the main living quarters of the plane, "Thank you for being honest with me."

"What about you?" Triplett asked, "If you don't mind me asking. Garrett showed me your file one time and it said Arthur arrested you for blowing up a house and joining the Rising Tide."

Katie nodded.

"I did." She admitted, "But fortunately, Arthur taught me there are things in life worth fighting for and that given the right time and patience, one person could become a part of something better."

"Words to live by." Antoine told her, "So how are you holding up with Jessica?"

Katie felt a little uncomfortable with the question.

"I hope she makes it." Katie admitted, "Jessica might've seemed hard at first, but she help Arthur stop being serious on a 24/7 basis. I don't want to imagine what this is doing to him now, or what losing him is going to do to him further."

"That's why we have a plan to save her." Triplett said, "So you up for that."

"Of course." Katie told him.

…

_**Later, The Bus…**_

After following The Bus's location that Garrett had provided the team with, they had found the plane and boarded with Faye flying leaving Arthur, Katie, Bruce, Sabrina, Tyler, Garrett and Triplett to board and wheel Jessica's medical tube onboard.

Fortunately, Coulson understood Arthur's actions completely and assured him that they would do everything in their power to help Jessica as much as they would do to save Skye. After dismissing both teams, Arthur was held back by Coulson who told him he was aware of how Arthur had secretly helped Skye and Simmons out back during the Hub incident, but because of Arthur's willingness to help the two out, their additional mission was Phil's way of saying thanks for Arthur saving Skye (and Ward and Fitz since without Arthur's intervention to get Skye and Simmons the time needed to break in, the two male agents would probably be dead).

As the group soon discovered from Garrett's interrogation of Ian Quinn (the man responsible for shooting Skye,) The Clairvoyant had come to him and while Quinn was skeptical at first, the Clairvoyant had soon proven to be a genuine fortune teller with his ability to predict what was going to happen and when. The only thing he had been unable to see however, was the circumstances which had brought Phil back from the dead.

It was then that the agents realized something. The Clairvoyant wanted them to discover how Phil had been resurrected. For some reason, he was unable to see that one incident and by sending the agents there, they would possibly get the knowledge needed to finally uncover the truth about what happened to Phil the day he died.

However, Phil and Arthur proved that they would do anything to save Skye and Jessica. Fortunately, with the combined efforts of Fitz, Simmons, Bruce, and Sabrina, they managed to get into a virtual paper trail of all of S.H.I.E.L.D'S Files from memos to travel information, and learned of a collapsed World War II Bunker called 'The Guest House,' which contained it only being opened following the Battle of New York once by a Level 10 Operative. There was only one agent that matched that level and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who it was. Additionally, they had a name for their drug; GH.325. Now, they were on their way to the 'Guest House' to retrieve the drug and hopefully save Skye and Jessica.

Down in the medical room, Bruce watched as Simmons worked on Skye and Sabrina worked on treating Jessica as best they could.

"Hey." A voice called.

Bruce looked to see Fitz and Triplett entering. Triplett had a cup of coffee in his hand as Fitz held two extra cups in his hand.

"Want one?" He asked.

"Thanks." Bruce said, "I feel like I haven't slept in days."

"Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent will do that to you." Antoine told him.

"So how are things with you and Simmons?" Bruce asked.

Fitz raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well," Bruce said, "Between us three…there was an incident where someone was impersonating her brother and she asked me to look into it in secret."

"Let me guess." Fitz asked, "It didn't stay a secret."

"No." Bruce answered, "But talking about it helped, and she uh…she gave me a kiss on the check."

The two other agents looked at him amazed, as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Wait. So you've never dated?" Fitz asked.

"Nope." Bruce admitted, "But looking at her work, I guess it's what you and Simmons have, Fitz."

"What we…?" Fitz asked, before realizing what he went, "Oh, no…we're just friends. Look, what's important is teamwork, and if you want to take it to the next level, that's fine, but I think you should just be friends with her for now. If she wants to take it up, you can let her, but I don't think I can say anything more than that."

"Understood." Bruce replied.

Suddenly there was a bit of static on the intercom as Arthur's voice filled the Bus.

"Good afternoon," Arthur said, "We'll be approaching the Guest House soon. Will Fitz, Garrett, Tyler, Ward, and Katie please join me, Phil, and May in the hangar within the next few hours?"

The group looked at each other and nodded went their separate ways.

….

_**Soon…**_

Soon, the group was assembled and all loading up with guns, explosives, and any non-lethal additional weapons they could get their hand on.

"Okay." Tyler said, loading a gun, "Remember, I'm not harming anyone unless I have to."

"Sure." Katie said, putting on a bulletproof vest.

"We're heading into an unsanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. Base." Phil explained.

"We've tried every channel and it's abandoned." May added.

"I think it's safe to assume that they won't be handing over the drug that easily." Arthur continued, "So our mission is go in, don't kill unless you have to, get the drug, and get out alive. We'll begin as diplomatically as we can and if not, we go in and take it."

"Tripp can help with Simmons, he's had medical training." Garrett explained.

"Good." Phil said, loading a gun, "We pull this off, we can save both Skye and Jessica."

"What if they say no?" Ward asked.

Garrett just simply loaded his gun.

"I'll say 'pretty please.'" He said sarcastically.

"We need to keep the Doctors alive if they're still there." Arthur explained, "But in case this all goes to hell, Fitz will be with us so he can stay in contact with Simmons and we can determine what we need to help Skye and Jessica. We all clear on our plan?"

"Groovy." Katie said, loading her gun and storing it in her pocket after twirling it around, "Now let's save our friends."

"Nice moves, kid." Garrett declared, "Did Jessica teach you that?"

"Nope." Katie said, "Learned it from Peter Weller."

Garrett looked at her confused.

"_Robocop_?" She asked.

"Okay." Garrett nodded, "Have you given a name to your gun?"

"Yeah." Katie said, as they all exited and stepped out onto the mountains to behold two large metal doors, "JB."

"As in James Bond?"

"No." Katie smiled.

"Jason Bourne?"

"John Barrowman?" Katie asked, "He's a famous star from _Doctor Who_ and _Torchwood_?"

"Whatever." Garrett shrugged.

"I got it." Fitz said.

Everyone looked at him confused as he nodded awkwardly.

"The reference, I got." He said, "Simmons and I watch a lot of that."

"Who's your Doctor then?" Katie asked.

"Matt Smith." Fitz said, "You?"

"Same." She said.

Arthur gave a hand signal for them to be quiet.

Finally, they came to the doors.

"How was the drive from Istanbul?" A voice asked over a loudspeaker.

Coulson turned to the others who just shrugged, indicating that none of them knew what it meant.

"This is Agent Coulson with S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson explained, "We don't know the counter, but we have two team members in dire need of medical assistance. We know they can be treated here. Open the doors and perhaps we can work something out. Do you copy?"

Everyone waited until the voice spoke again.

"How was the drive from Istanbul?" The voice repeated.

Arthur groaned.

"And this is why we can't have good health care." He said, "Listen here, buddy, I don't know who the hell comes up with these countersigns, but two agents are dying, and unless we can work something out, things are going to get pretty bad pretty fast. Will you help us, please?"

There was another pause.

"How was the drive from Istanbul?"

Arthur and Phil turned back to Garrett who was already smiling.

"Pretty please it is." He said.

With that, Ward shot out the camera and Fitz began working on a device that would open the door for them. Soon the doors opened and the team moved in. Arthur approached an elevator and took out a little pocket knife. He pressed down and some sort of lazer emerged which he used to pry the doors open. Looking at the elevator cables, he grabbed onto one and nodded to the others who then slid down with him until they were all standing on top of the elevator. Fitz then used an iPad like device to scan the area beyond the elevator.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. never ceases to amaze me with all the gadgets." Katie smiled, "But does this seem like the usual cramped elevator feeling."

Before they could respond, Fitz held up his index finger indicating he had a read.

"Okay." He said, "There's a little chamber beyond some glass doors. Can't see much beyond that."

"Well." Coulson shrugged, "They know we're coming, let's go and say hello."

With that, they all jumped down, Ward, Tyler, Garrett, Katie, and Arthur pointing their guns at the ready while Fitz readied himself. There was nothing there.

"Remember." Tyler said, "I won't shoot anybody unless I have to. It's bad enough you all dragged me into this."

"Relax, buddy." Arthur said, getting a bit sick of Tyler's complaining, "We won't make you unless we absolutely need to. Fitz? Let Simmons know we're here."

Fitz nodded and activated his comm.

"Okay, Simmons." Fitz declared, "We're going in now."

There was no response.

"Simmons?" Fitz asked, confused.

No response.

"Dammit." He swore addressing the others. "Comms are down. There's too much mountain on top of us."

"Trust me, it's better." Garrett assured.

"Better how?!" Katie asked.

"You don't want them to hear the horrible death we're walking into." Garrett answered.

"Well thank you, Mister Sunshine." Arthur said, sarcastically, "But Garrett's right. This whole thing smells like a trap."

"Well if the job was easy…" Garrett smiled.

"It wouldn't be any fun." Ward finished with a small smile.

"I wonder what the hell it is Skye sees in you." Katie muttered under her breath.

"Well anyways," Fitz said, "I suspect the real danger won't start until we breach that bulletproof glass."

He looked at a nearby door.

"Probably a stairwell that should lead back to the surface." He guessed.

With that, he began to work on the control panel.

"Can you get us inside?" Coulson asked.

"To a certain horrible death?" Fitz asked with a grin, "Absolutely."

The others nodded. It seems like things were finally looking up for them. Finally, after tinkering some more with the door, Fitz nodded.

"Okay, sir." Fitz said, "Just give the word."

"Right. Coulson nodded as everyone with a gun (minus Tyler who just held his close to his chest,) readied themselves, "Once we get in, everyone find cover."

"Let's rock and roll." Arthur said, as everyone got into positions.

"Alright, gentlemen and lady." Coulson declared, "Here we go."

With that, Fitz opened the door. The group ran in and took cover behind some desks.

"Where is everyone?" Tyler asked.

"Maybe it's Sunday and they just had an automatic message system." Arthur joked.

Before Tyler could scold Arthur, a bunch of people came out from the other end of the room firing guns wildly.

"We've come for medical assistance." Phil assured, "But if you continue firing we will defend ourselves…"

There was another burst of rapid gunfire.

"I count two hostels." Ward noted.

"Copy that." Garett replied.

"Wait!" Katie declared, "I always wanted to try this. Let me take the one on the left, please?"

"Fine." Garrett said, "But it better be good. Ready?"

Katie and Ward nodded. Ward seeming a bit more skeptical of Katie.

Garrett gave the signal and Katie leapt over the table firing two shots off as she did so, hitting one of the gunmen in the arm as he groaned in pain and fell down, injured. She then leapt to the right behind another table as she fired another shot, hitting another gunman in the knee as he fell as well.

Just when another was about to fire at Katie, Ward got up and shot the guy in the chest as he fell down.

Coulson used took a flash bang from Fitz and called out to the two.

"Ward! Katie!"

The two shielded their eyes as the bang went off. With that, Arthur got up and shot another of the attackers in the leg. Finally getting in on the action, Garrett snuck up on one of the attackers and gave him a hard sock in the face before flipping him over and slamming the man hard on his back.

"CLEAR!" He called out.

"See if you can get some lights on." Coulson told Fitz.

"Right." Fitz nodded.

"We're not done." Ward called, indicating to a trail of blood left behind, "This one's hit. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

He and Coulson went off to find the guy as the rest held their positions. Nothing seemed right.

"I don't get it." Katie said, "Where're all the Doctors here?"

"Oh, shit." Garrett cursed, before calling out, "We got a problem!"

"What?" Katie asked as Coulson and Ward rejoined them.

"The whole place is rigged to blow." Garrett explained.

"Knew it was too good to be true." Tyler muttered.

"There's enough explosives to bring down the whole mountain on top of us." Fitz elaborated.

"We got less than ten minutes." Ward pointed out, "If the guards had eliminated us, they would've shut down the failsafe."

"Yeah, and we'd be dead." Arthur pointed out.

"Since they didn't…" Coulson said.

"There's some kind of emergency overdrive." Fitz told them, "Skye could probably get past it, but I can't hack the panel which means we're trapped in here."

"Any ideas?" Katie asked.

Coulson looked at Garrett.

"You're the guy who taught Ward how to disarm nuclear bombs." He explained, "Figure out a way to get us out of here. The rest of us will try and find the drug."

"Right." Arthur said, "Come on, Katie. Time to pay the melon farmer."

"I'm not even going to ask what that means." Tyler said as he, Coulson, Arthur, Katie, and Fitz walked off into a long narrow hallway.

"So this is some kind of medical facility." Fitz pointed out.

"Yeah." Coulson answered, "But since nobody's here, I assume that means it won't do us any good."

…

_**Meanwhile, The Bus…**_

Sabrina looked over Jessica's still body. She was still deteriorating but at least she had managed to slow it down. Right now, it was all coming down to if Coulson and Arthur could get that drug they discovered back up to her in time. Right now, she was just sitting next to Jessica's bedside giving a silent prayer as Bruce tried to get in contact with them. According to the reports they were getting from the other team working on saving Skye, they had lost communication with the others, and Bruce was trying to find if he had some way of establishing any form of communication with them.

Seeing as how he wasn't getting anywhere, he decided to get up and see how everyone else was doing.

"I'm gonna check on Skye." He informed.

"I'll let you know if anything changes." Sabrina replied, not taking her eyes off Jessica.

Bruce nodded and got up. He understood how Sabrina was feeling. It wasn't just important to her that Jessica live through this due to Sabrina being a medical doctor, but also because she was a friend. As they had been worried about during this whole adventure, Arthur seemed determined to save Jessica's life as well and he had come so far in becoming a better person with the team's help.

If one were to die at the hands of an enemy, they would be scared to see what lengths Arthur would go to afterwards to find them.

Bruce went into the medical pod where Simmons and Triplett were looking over Skye's body.

"Hi." He said.

"Oh," Simmons said, looking up, "Hello."

"What's up?" Triplett asked, "How's Jessica?"

"Not good." Bruce admitted, "Mind if I sit with you?"

"Go ahead." Simmons said, pulling up a nearby spare chair.

Bruce nodded and sat down.

"Still no change." Bruce pointed out, looking at Skye's life signs.

"No." Simmons said, shaking her head, "It appears we've done everything we can."

"Same with Jessica." Bruce replied, "We still have no contact with the others and I've tried everything. All we can do is pray for a miracle that they get back in time."

"They will." Simmons said, "I know they will."

There was a silence before Bruce decided to speak again.

"You know, Agent Simmons…" Bruce began.

"Please." She said, with a weak smile, "Just call me Jemma."

"Right." Bruce nodded, "You know as much as we look to our team for strength, we also have our own heroes."

"Understandable." Triplett nodded, "My grandfather was the reason for joining S.H.I.E.L.D. What about you, Bruce?"

"Well, mine is a debt to Agent Nick Jones. He saved my life once and I wanted to find a way to do good as a result so I joined S.H.I.E.L.D."

"And what about Sabrina?" Simmons asked.

"She joined because of a need to do right in the world after losing her brother." Bruce explained, "But I think her need to do good in the world came from you and Leo, Jemma."

Jemma looked at him amazed.

"Me and Fitz?" She asked, almost in disbelief.

"Yeah." Bruce said, "I mean I thought it was great when you two got into Coulson's group. And the way you work has saved the world ten times over from so many disasters…"

"That's incredible." Jemma said, "I never thought me and Fitz would be so idolized after leaving the academy."

"Yeah." Bruce said, "Who knows, maybe in a few years another agent will be inspired by me or Sabrina. Or any other agent."

"Yeah." Triplett joked, "Let's just hope when they put your name up there on the plaque of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best agents you have a good speech prepared."

"I will." Bruce smiled, looking over Skye's body returning to a more serious tone, "So what exactly happened with Skye? I heard she was shot but I didn't hear who by."

"Ian Quinn." Simmons said, "We were tracking down a new unknown item he was carrying. But it wasn't a thing. It was a person. Mike Peterson."

"Peterson?!" Bruce asked, "But I thought he was dead!"

"That's what we thought." Simmons mentioned, "But apparently Quinn had him outfitted with something as part of a project called the 'Deathlok Program.' Ian Quinn told Mike to shoot Skye but he hesitated and Quinn did it for Peterson."

"Doesn't he have a kid and a strong morality?" Bruce asked, "Why would he do this?"

"He has a son and he's a good person." Simmons assured, "But we apparently heard that Agent Boateng was sent to check on Mike's son, Ace, after we put him in S.H.I.E.L.D. protection after Mike's supposed death. Tyler was ambushed according to his reports and Ace was kidnapped by some unknown assailants. We believe they're holding Ace somewhere to blackmail Agent Peterson."

"Did they say who they worked for?" Bruce asked.

"No." Simmons answered.

"Me and Garrett were actually assigned not too long ago to try and follow up on where those guys might've taken Ace to." Triplett said, "But we got nowhere with it and we eventually had to move on to other assignments. Why do you ask, Bruce?"

"No reason." Bruce admitted.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

In the cockpit of the Bus, Faye entered to see May pushing various buttons on the dashboard.

"You wanted to see me?" Faye asked.

"Yes." May responded, without turning her head, "Sit down next to me."

Faye did so, feeling rather uncomfortable. This was a rare feeling for her. She was always a great S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who could be counted on most of the time to get the job done without hesitation. But right now, she was sitting next to Agent Melinda May; the so-called 'Calvary' as people called her. Even Faye's nickname of 'Agent Carter' was dwarfed by the mere mention of May's nickname. Nobody at S.H.I.E.L.D. outside of a few high-level individuals knew the real story of how May received that nickname but the most popular belief that everyone usually accepted was the story that at some point in Melinda May's career, her team had been captured and so she rode into the enemy territory on top of a horse and gunned down all the bad guys saving her team. Since her return to active duty after working a desk job following an unknown incident, May's reputation as being one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most deadly agents had only grown stronger.

In short, even Faye knew not to give May any trouble.

Especially since when May asked Faye to meet her on the Bus via the communication link to the Spec-Ops Plane, and sounded quite serious about talking to Faye.

"I'm setting this plane up in case we need to go and make an emergency exit." She explained, "We haven't heard back from the others in a while and it'll be helpful if we have an escape plan set up. I suggest you soon do the same."

"Is that all?" Faye asked.

May turned to face her, and Faye could see that she looked a bit suspicious and serious with what was going on.

"What's the last thing you said to Jessica before she had her injuries?" May asked.

"Nothing." Faye admitted, honestly, "I just wished her goodnight after I had a fight with Arthur the night he explained what our next assignment was. Next thing I know, I wake up the next day and Jessica's been injured. Why do you ask?"

"Because I don't think you're telling everything that the rest of my team needs to know." May told her, "And seeing as how trust is something we need now when another of our agent's lives is on the line, I think it would be best if you told me what you and Arthur were fighting over."

Faye sighed before continuing.

"We were following our own mysterious shady figure not unlike the one you've been chasing." Faye explained, "We were told that there was a professor who might've known where they were, but we'd pick him up today after meeting with Tyler. I protested to Arthur about doing it now and he told me no twice. I thought we should since our shady figure's been causing us so much trouble over the past few months since our team first formed, and giving ample time could possibly allow him to know what we were up to and bring in his contact before we got there."

May looked at her unsympathetically.

"Very well." She said, "You're dismissed."

"Wait." Faye asked, "You're not going to arrest me?"

"We already have a psychopath locked up in our plane and I doubt you'd get along with him." May told her, "However, I hope that's all you have to tell us, Agent Faye. Dismissed."

Faye nodded and left feeling immense pressure now. She understood what May meant. Jessica must've thought that Faye was up to something and went off on her own to try and stop it. This was also now on Faye as much as it was on this mysterious Igraine that kept haunting the team. If Faye hadn't been so adamant, maybe Jessica wouldn't have been in this position now and they would've had this Igraine captured by now.

Feeling guilty, she kept her head down all the way back to the Spec-Ops Plane.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

"So what do both of you do in your free time?" Bruce asked, trying to find some way to keep his brain from going insane due to the waiting time, "When you're not on the job?"

"Nothing much." Antoine shrugged, "Sometimes I play video games."

"Same." Bruce nodded, "Maybe we should do multiplayer at some point in the future."

"Yeah." Antoine said, "I'm down for that. Provided we have the time, of course."

"Well, whenever we're not working, Fitz and I like to watch a couple of episodes of _Doctor Who_." Simmons said, with a small smile.

"Katie's been watching some of that and _Torchwood_." Bruce noted.

"Really?" She asked, "Does she have a favorite episode yet?"

"I don't know." Bruce said, "I'll have to ask."

Suddenly, the small talk was put to an end when the group heard a loud scream.

"BRUCE!" Sabrina's voice yelled, "I need you now!"

Bruce quickly got up and ran over to see Jessica. He looked at her horrified as Jessica began coughing what appeared to be dark red blood.

"What is it?!" Bruce asked.

"It's her heartbeat." She declared, "We're losing her!"

"Dammit!" Bruce said, "Is there anything we can do?!"

"Only try to hold it until Arthur gets back which should be hopefully soon." Sabrina said, getting a first-aid kit, "Bruce, here's what I need you to do…"

…

_**The Guest House…**_

Soon the group came across a large window which contained an empty operating room. Coulson stared out into there as the others guessed what this was about.

"This is it, isn't it?" Arthur asked, "This is where you were treated?"

"Yeah." Coulson nodded, uneasily.

"That must've sucked big time." Katie guessed.

"It did." Coulson replied as they pressed forward.

Eventually they came across a door that read 'BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT' and Coulson began cranking it open.

"Sir…" Fitz asked, "Are you sure we should…"

"No time." Arthur said, as Coulson opened the door and they all walked inside.

Now they stood in a room containing various chemicals.

"Let's go." Arthur said, as they all split up.

"Wish I could talk to Simmons." Fitz said, "She'd know what most of this stuff is. Or at least what not to touch."

Eventually, Coulson opened a door containing more chemicals but no GH.325. Soon, though, Fitz and Katie noticed some kind of canister that reminded Katie of the stuff they used to keep the dinosaur embryos cool in _Jurassic Park_.

"Guys!" Katie called out as everyone went over.

"It's locked." Fitz said.

"Here." Couslon said, handing Fitz some gloves as he put them on and Phil opened the door with a special key.

Just then, Ward showed up.

"We can't stop it." Ward told them.

Fitz began quickly sorting through the vials until he came across two vials both marked 'GH.325."

"This is what we want!" He declared.

"Perfect." Arthur said, looking at Tyler, "You see, Tyler? Everything worked out in the end."

"Good." Coulson said, "Get it up to Simmons. Tyler, you and the others cover him in case anything goes wrong."

"Right." Tyler said as Katie and Arthur began to follow him out. But Arthur stopped when he noticed Ward wasn't going along.

"Sir?" Ward asked.

"I'lll be right behind you." Phil said, softly, "Go!"

Ward left, but Arthur stayed behind.

He watched Phil move a box revealing a door which read 'T.A.H.I.T.I.' He opened the door and Arthur followed him inside.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

Katie was running when she noticed Ward was behind her.

"Wait!" She said, "Where's Arthur?!"

"Have no idea!" Ward said.

"So you're going to leave him there?!" Katie demanded, "This is because you hate him, isn't it?! You just want an excuse to leave him and…"

Ward responded with a punch to Katie's face and then carried her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"God you're sometimes so unberable." Ward muttered as he soon rejoined with Garrett, Tyler, and Fitz who were setting up their escape route using the bombs to blow open the door.

"Guess we don't have to worry about the Clairvoyant finding this place." Garrett joked, as he handed Ward the detonator.

"Agent Ward…" Garrett declared, "Would you do the honors?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Ward replied.

He set the detonator but before he could press the button, Katie's hand grabbed the detonator and did it for him as the doors exploded, freeing them.

They helped Fitz get through and he and Tyler began to run back up to the surface.

"Wait a second…" Garrett said, "Coulson? Where is he? PHIL?!"

"Oh," Katie called to Tyler as he was ascending the staircase behind Fitz, "By the way, Ward left Arthur and Coulson behind. Just FYI if you want to fail him on that."

"Right." Garrett said, "Action girl, you're with me."

"Action Girl." Katie chuckled, "I like the sound of that."

"Don't get used to it." Garrett said, "Ward, go with them and make sure they get the drug all right."

"Garrett, I…"

"Go!" Garrett ordered, "Save the girls!"

Ward nodded and did as he was told.

…

_**Soon, The Bus…**_

"Dammit!" Sabrina swore as she worked furiously alongside Bruce to try and save Jessica, "We're losing her!"

"No!" Bruce said, "We can't let it end like this!"

"What are we supposed to do then?!" Sabrina asked.

"Why not use this?"

The two turned to see Ward standing in the doorway right next to Fitz. He tossed them a vial which Sabrina caught. Looking at the vial, it read GH.325.

"That should help save Jessica's life." Fitz explained, running off to help with Skye alongside Ward.

Soon Tyler entered the room and looked at the two seriously.

"Well," He said, "You said you wanted to save her life. Do it."

Sabrina looked at the vial quickly before going to prep for an injection into Jessica's arm.

"Let's move her next to Skye, though." Bruce suggested, taking Jessica's tube as Tyler went to help, "Probably best so we know if their heartbeats aren't in synch then something might've gone wrong."

"Good plan." Sabrina said, taking out a needle.

…

_**The Guest House…**_

Garrett and Katie kept moving down the tunnel as they finally found Coulson and Arthur shambling forward. The two team leaders looked horrified as they continued moving forward.

"Coulson! Arthur!" Katie smiled, "Come on! We gotta go!"

"What?" Arthur asked confused.

"The others got out, and they're prepping Skye and Jess for the drug." Garrett continued, happily.

"No!" Coulson declared, "The drug! They can't give it to them!"

"Tell them yourself, we need to get out of here now."

But already Arthur and Coulson were running for the exit.

"Hey!" Katie asked as she and Garrett followed them, "ARTHUR! COULSON! WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON?!"

Neither answered as they ran back to the surface.

….

_**Soon, The Bus…**_

As May and Faye took off, May suddenly noticed the four figures running behind them onto the back of the bus as the place exploded, and the mountain collapsed underneath the surface.

Even though they were back onboard, Arthur and Coulson didn't stop and instead headed right for the medical room where Skye and Jessica were being prepped. To their horror, they saw they were too late and that Sabrina and Simmons had released the so-called GH.325 serum into Jessica and Skye's arms respectively. They noticed the two wounded agents beds had moved close together and they had already given them the serum.

Still, that didn't stop the two arriving agents from calling out.

"NO!" Arthur yelled.

"DON'T GIVE IT TO HER!" Phil declared.

Everyone turned to look at the two team leaders amazed.

"Sirs?!" Simmons asked as Katie and Garett suddenly joined them, "What are you…?"

Before she could finish, both of the injured agent's heartbeats began beeping faster and the two were convulsing on their beds. The two team biologists tried to hold them down and figure out what the substance had possibly done to their friends, with Fitz, Bruce, Katie, and Ward trying to assist as well.

"Dear god, Phil…" Arthur whispered quietly, in a voice he wasn't even sure Phil could hear, "What did we do?"

As if on cue, the two agent's heartbeats returned to normal and Simmons looked amazed.

"They're stabilizing." She said almost in disbelief.

"Look!" Sabrina declared.

She pointed at Jessica's wounds which were somehow stitching themselves back together and covering the cuts with new flesh.

"She's all right! The serum worked."

Phil and Arthur both took sighs of relief, but both knew that they would have to investigate whatever the hell they saw down there.

"Can someone tell me what we just saw?" Ward asked.

"Not till you're older." Arthur said, half-jokingly.

"The girls are a couple fighters." Triplett pointed out, "What did you guys give them?"

The two just remained silent as Triplett looked over at Sabrina and Simmons.

"You two are miracle workers, you know."

The two biologists smiled.

….

_**Earlier, in T.A.H.I.T.I…**_

Arthur followed Phil closely, his gun and flashlight ready. Suddenly, the two came to the end of a corridor and gasped.

"Phil…" Arthur asked, at a loss for words, "What the hell is that?"

"I…I don't know." Phil answered, not even bothering to ask why Arthur had stayed behind.

There was a cryo-tube at the end, but what concerned them was inside it. Lying within the tube and drowned in an experimental blue liquid was some kind of blue creature. Only its upper torso remained as its lower half seemed ripped off with dozens of tubes attached to where its legs should have been. The two S.H.I.E.L.D. team leaders followed the tubes leading out of the alien's body which ended over a bunch of small vials reading GH.325.

Neither agent said anything as they just walked back in horror, trying to get a grip on their sanity after the shocking revelation.

….

_**Later, The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

After both Skye and Jessica had both checked out okay with their tests, Garrett went to tell Ian Quinn that he was going to be put away for a good while. While there was still no word on the Clairvoyant or Igraine, Arthur was silently thanking himself for the fact that another team member had not died because of his negligence.

Finally, Tyler came over to Arthur, as Arthur looked ready to accept whatever Tyler had to say.

"So here's the deal," Tyler explained, "The World Security Council is upset at what happened with Jessica, but Fury convinced them that you did a remarkable job in terms of character to save your teammate."

"I don't understand…" Arthur said confused, "We broke into a highly-classified S.H.I.E.L.D. Base…one we destroyed…"

"Well according to Fury's report, all you did was get to her in time, stitch her back up, and revive her as a team while simultaneously getting some information about this Igraine person you've been tracking. Information which the Security Council has been denied on the fact that Fury said they weren't ready for it yet."

Arthur looked amazed.

"Congratulations, Williams." He said, "As far as I'm concerned, you've passed the evaluation."

Arthur shook Tyler's hand, but Tyler then looked at him seriously.

"Just keep your agents on a tighter leash this time around though, okay?" He asked.

Arthur nodded. At that moment, one of the doors opened and Jessica walked out wearing a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. Hospital Gown and blue slippers.

Tyler looked at her.

"I'll get going now and let you two catch up." He said, shaking Arthur's hand, "A pleasure doing business with you, Arthur Williams. Hopefully you'll stay out of trouble this time. Be sure to take good care of Jessica, though."

"I will." Arthur replied as Jessica approached him.

"Hi." She said, smiling at him.

"How are you doing?" Arthur asked.

"Much better, thanks." Jessica said, before putting on a more serious face, "Look, I'm sorry I went off on my own. It was wrong, but I thought that I could help the team out."

"I think I understand." Arthur said, "But you seem like you have more to tell me."

Jessica was about to agree when something crossed her mind. Her desire to tell Arthur about the last words of Anber Jenkins was now overridden by a new desire.

"Can I have a pen and paper?" She asked.

Arthur looked at her confused.

"Really?" He asked, "Why?"

"I just feel that I have a lot to write down on the account of almost dying and all." Jessica lied.

"Uh…okay. Give me a second." Arthur said walking off.

Jessica asked herself what the hell she was doing as Arthur returned with a blank notepad and pen.

"Here you go." He said, handing it to her.

"Thanks," Jessica said, nodding, "Well, I should try getting some more rest."

"Jessica?" Arthur asked, "Good to have you back safe and sound."

"Good to be back." Jessica smiled walking back to her room.

As soon as she was back, she locked the door and imminently sat down on her bed. From there, she began furiously drawing away. It was like someone was controlling her on puppet strings. She had no idea how much time had passed before she was finished.

When she was done, Jessica took deep breaths and looked at what she had done. To her surprise, she had drawn a series of lines, ovals, and circles which all looked like some kind of elaborate pattern she obviously didn't know about.

When she had took time to look over her drawing, she made sure everybody onboard was asleep without waking them, and then went to the private phone, calling up Director Fury. After the third ring, he picked up.

"Agent Smith." Fury's voice said, "I heard you took a really bad fall so I assume whatever this is you're calling about is pretty important."

"Sir…" She replied, "I've been exposed to the GH.325. Against my own will."

There was a slight pause before Fury continued.

"Damn." He said.

"Sir…" She asked, "I just drew a bunch of circles, ovals, and lines against my own will and I have no idea what it means."

"I was afraid of this." Fury admitted, "We picked up a specimine a few months after Thor visited us for the first time. We found it had regenerative abilities when its blood was introduced into people who went rouge so we had to brainwash them. And since I'm reading that your teammates apparently helped blow up the base, you're unfortunately stuck with that for now."

"Sir…" She said, "I found out that apparently someone IS within S.H.I.E.L.D. They're working with this Igraine person my team has been chasing."

Fury paused again for a moment.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Those were Professor Anber Jenkin's last words to me before he literally blew up." Jessica told him.

"Then my worst fear has come true." Fury said, "All right, Agent Smith. Keep a close eye on your team and if any of them act out of line, make sure you take care of them."

"Sir…" Jessica pleaded, "We need to also talk about my own health. I need to know if this remains permeant or…"

"Negative, Agent Smith." Fury told her, "I am concerned as well. But if what you told me is true, then we have to start working on what to do about this mole. Right now, your team and perhaps all of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at risk and I intend to save or at the very least salvage it no matter the cost. For now, as always, this stays between us. Understood?"

Jessica lowered her head, pausing for a second before she spoke.

"Yes, sir." She replied.

"Try your best to mask your problem and don't let it blow your cover if you can." Fury suggested, "I'll relay the information through Agent Hill. She's been assisting me the whole way throughout this investigation and she's proven to be loyal. We'll basically release a false statement in a couple of days describing that she managed to happen upon some intel. Then we can have the agents find out whoever these people are that have plagued both Coulson's team as well as yours. Then when we have them, you have my word that we'll make sure they never bother you again, and that you'll be treated on so that your little sleepwalking thing never happens again. Good luck, Agent Smith."

With that, he hung up leaving Jessica holding onto the phone, praying that this newfound sleepdrawing would not interfere until then.

…...

_**Meanwhile, Washington DC…**_

It was a very rare exception when the Capitol Building was not being used. Then again, in recent years, the United States Congressmen usually didn't use this room for anything besides yelling and screaming at each other. Today, however, the room was nearly empty save for a few stray members of the GOP including their current leader, Republican Congressman Samuel T Underwood.

What was most unusual, however, was the fact that the floor was currently being occupied by someone who wasn't a politician, but had come to these people with news that caught their attention.

"I would first like to thank all of you for coming out here despite my somewhat questionable requests," The woman said, "It shows that there are still some people out there like you who are willing to listen to reason rather than following the Sheppard like his flock being lead to a slaughterhouse."

She nodded and began.

"I'll get straight to the point." She said, rubbing her eyes, "How do I explain this without causing pandemonium? The answer is that I can't. I have come to the realization that the world will end within our lifetime. It's not a theory, it's a fact. It'll come from the result of global warming and the wars this country has caused. Those of you who know my profile will know I took great lengths to keeping my operations in secret. You know why I never went to anybody in the government before my plan was ready to be realized? Because the last I checked, the planet was still dying! Those so-called 'World Leaders' have buried their heads in the ground and stood by for re-election and peace that will never come instead of bringing us the change to the world they promised us. But I have that change. I know the solution. Here's the thing; money won't solve this problem. Even if we were to win the multiple wars our country is embroiled in, it won't make a difference since we're past the point of no return. There's only one option I believe we have left that can salvage Earth and save humanity from the coming storm. We need to change the status quo of the world, without actually loosing any positions of power and ensuring that when the new age has dawned, those government positions around the world will be filled by real people who will be able to manage us better from that point. Now if you want to really change the world and prove you can all make a difference to your people, I suggest that you open your ears and listen to what I have to say."

The GOP members murmured with each other for about a few minutes discussing this amongst themselves. Finally, when they were finished, they turned their attention back to the woman.

"Go on, Ms... Igraine, ma'am." Underwood said, still trying to get used to calling the woman that name, "We're listening."

"Good." Igraine smiled, "Because I admit it might sound crazy at first, but in the end, it'll be worth the collateral damage my plan has in order for us all to save this planet."

….

**So there we have it, everyone! Jessica has been exposed to the same drug that runs through Coulson and Skye's blood and already things are not looking good for her. Some of you might ask why she imminently went sort-of nuts. Remember, Jessica's a survivor who's been through all methods of torture and sometimes a person can resist to a good degree when something goes wrong with their mind. Also bear in mind that unlike Phil, she didn't have the brain treatment to was away these horrible memories from her mind and she doesn't have the same DNA like Skye did to help her be prevented from going crazy. So expect Jessica to be in for a real mental struggle with her sanity (as if she didn't have enough to deal with at this moment.) And while the team will finally deal next chapter with trying to take down Igraine once and for all (and try to help Phil's team end the Clairvoyant's plans as well,) Igraine begins the next step of her crazed plan which could spell major disaster for the world. So hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will see you next time. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! See you next time!**


	12. The New Age

**Hi, everyone! Well, this is it. The chapter you've all been waiting for. I have a really bad pun I'm going to bust out at the end and it's taking every bit of strength to stop myself from using it too soon and spoiling it in the beginning. So it'll show up at the end, but some of you who know what happened prior to the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier will have probably figured it out by now so get ready for it. One other thing I'd like to say is the timing for this chapter. If you've been following S.H.I.E.L.D. (and really, you should,) you know that a certain character from Season One has just returned. If not, go and watch it. We need more supporters to prove it's still good. While I can see where some people claim it's using the same format, they've added new things and it's not ENTIRELY the same. So there's my two cents. Also, thanks again to everyone who has supported this story with their reviews and likes. I'd also like to respond to a review by RileyIsMyName who said that she enjoyed the continuing shipping of Bruce and Sabrina (or perhaps Bruina, if you have a better name, I invite you to leave one in the review). If you've liked it, you might want to keep reading ahead. They also said they'd ship Arthur and Katie. To that I say if they want to write a story about that, I can't stop them. However, I feel as if Arthur and Katie work better as a team and not in a relationship. I see their pairing more as like Robin and Raven in the old Teen Titans cartoon. And yes, I did compare something in a Marvel Fanfic to DC. You may now begin stoning me and saying you'll never read another story again. Kidding. Obviously. But in all seriousness, if you want to see a pairing, you can feel free to send me a message if you'd want to do a story about it, and I'd see if I could give you approval just so long as it was appropriate. So with all that said, enjoy. Oh, and do remember, I own NOTHING. This is for fan-purpopses only, so PLEASE don't sue! With that said, enjoy!**

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Jessica Smith was feeling extremely uncomfortable as she kept drawing the same damn images over and over. Her fingers trembled as she dropped the pen. Dozens of pages of the same image littered her room as she had somehow been drawing in her sleep all night without even realizing it.

Jessica was now beginning to have serious doubts that Fury would be able to help her in time before she was completely gone and ended up in a mental hospital. Ever since the mission a few days ago, Jessica was beginning to feel as though she was losing more and more of a grip on her sanity and that she was very well near her breaking point.

Suddenly, a nearby iPad device beeped, making her jump a little. Looking at it, she sighed with relief realizing it was using an encrypted line from Director Fury. It was a simple message that made Jessica feel a little better.

'Agent Smith,

I believe we are about to take out the Clairvoyant AND Igraine in the same day. Your team will be joining with Agent Coulson's in a few hours' time. Be prepared to meet with another inside woman who will help you until you are ready for your treatment. You'll know who it is.

Director Fury.'

Jessica once again prayed she could hold onto her mind until then, but felt relieved that someone would be talking to her.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Arthur was looking over some papers involving different leads on Igraine when his built-in phone rang. Looking at the caller, he saw it was from Victoria Hand. Groaning a bit to himself, he picked it up and answered.

"Hello, Miss Hand." He said.

"Agent Williams." Hand said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "I finally got around to reading the report about that stunt you pulled with your protégé. I'll admit, I'm impressed. Well done on that part. Also congratulations are in order for passing your evaluation."

"Thank you, Miss Hand." Arthur nodded, "But I take it that this call isn't for social reasons."

"No, you're right on that." Hand admitted, "We're going to need you to rendezvous with us onboard The Bus. Agent Coulson and his team believe that they've finally tracked down The Clairvoyant."

"Katie's just going to visit her friends, Miss Hand." Arthur replied, "I let her visit because she learned her lesson from last time, and I had nothing for her to do at this moment, so I allowed her a quick leave of absence. Besides, I've got a promise to keep with her on being fair and equal, so I'll go get her so we can pick her up and then me and my team can rendezvous with you and the others on The Bus."

"Very well, Agent Williams." Victoria replied, "Make it quick. See you soon."

"Williams out."

….

_**Boston…**_

Katie smiled as she walked down the streets with the utmost confidence and the perfect stature. Everywhere she went, people were recognizing her and giving her the highest compliments. For each one she received, she gave an equal kind one back as well.

It felt rather nice to be visiting not to mention she had received a S.H.I.E.L.D. Paycheck of two-hundred dollars. A short time ago, she would've spent it all in one place, but Arthur was quick to remind her that she should spend her money wisely. So now, she was going to visit her friends at the orphanage and give them a fifty dollar bill so they could treat themselves to a real meal and not some horrid type that her old orphanage usually cooked up. After all, Arthur had taught her the value of putting others before her first so now it felt right that she would do something that actually benefited her friends instead of stealing cars to have a good time and chase with the cops.

Finally, she reached the orphanage, only to find that Sister Rachel was already there on the steps to the orphanage. As soon the head saw Katie, her eyes glared.

"Well, look who it is!" She declared, "God's name, Katie. That's a fine suit you got there. How many people did you have to do to get that one?"

"Nice to see you too, Sister Rachel." Katie replied, sarcastically, "I'm not in the mood to participate in name-calling, so I'll cut to the chase, I'm just here to say hi to Tabatha and Abby, and then I'll be on my way."

"No chance." Sister Rachel said, "Your old friend Daryl came by looking to adopt them with you out of the picture, and they bit him. He slapped both of them pretty good in response and left to go to the bar."

With that revelation, Katie went through a number of emotions in just a few seconds. First, shock for the events that had transpired since her last visit, then anger for Sister Rachel letting Daryl do such a thing (she was only friends with him because they played baccarat with her under the guise of a businessman when it was obvious Daryl sold drugs and probably even gave Sister Rachel some weed to help run things here,) and finally determination to make Daryl answer for his actions.

"Where is he?" Katie demanded, "Is he at the bar now?"

"Last I checked." Sister Rachel replied, as Katie left.

"HEY!" She yelled, "KATIE! GET BACK HERE! WE'RE NOT FINISHED!"

Katie ignored her and continued to walk over to the bar until she finally saw Daryl sitting outside with his local thug gang.

One of the members nudged Daryl in the shoulder as he looked up to see Katie and grinned.

"Hey!" Katie declared, pointing a finger at him, "We need to talk!"

"Well, look who's come back down from the mountain of enlightenment." Daryl laughed sarcastically, "I take it you heard about the incident. I trust you have something you wish to say to me?"

"Yeah." Katie declared sarcastically, before going serious again, "It's that I'm sick and tired of you trying to use my friends and this is where I draw the line."

Everyone looked surprised, but Daryl just grinned as he got up, stretching a bit before he looked back at Katie.

"Does that mean I'm supposed to be scared now that you're all dressed up in a monkey suit?" He asked.

"It does." Katie replied, internally smiling internally for what was about to happen.

Daryl grinned as he motioned for her to come at him.

"Then come on, Katie." He said, "Come on and teach me a lesson about what you learned."

Katie grinned as she cracked her knuckles.

"Gladly." She replied.

Katie rushed towards him and kicked Daryl straight in the gut. Thanks to her training, her impact was powerful enough to send Daryl flying through the doors and into the bar much to the shock of his gang, and the people inside.

"You asswipe!" Katie screamed, moving inside before Daryl's gang could restrain her, "You think I'm going to let this happen again?! That's the last time you go anywhere near them, understand?!"

She began kicking him in the chest repeatedly, as Daryl began groaning in pure pain.

"Times have changed, Daryl!" Katie declared, "From now on, I'm no longer the little girl who was scared of you and Sister Rachel. Now I'm all grown up and I'm going to make sure you never go near my friends again!"

"Katie, please!" Daryl groaned, "You don't understand!"

"Shut the hell up." Rachel replied.

"Juan!" Daryl screamed, "STOP HER FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

Juan, the short Korean man of Daryl's group, lead the rest of the members into the bar calmly.

"Everybody out!" He said.

"Please, sir!" The bartender said, "This is going to…"

"You too!" Juan declared, "Or you'll get your ass kicked as well."

The man sighed and left with a huff.

Juan turned to the other members of his group.

"Close the door and curtains." Juan said.

"Yeah." Katie said, jokingly, "It'll be embarrassing if everyone sees what happens next."

"See, that's your problem, Katie." Juan explained, "You've always been a rebellious little shit that wouldn't flush down the toilet. You've never had any respect for people like us or for authority, even if you are wearing a suit like that."

"Shut up and walk away, Juan." Katie told him seriously, "This is between me and Daryl. There's no need to involve yourself in this too."

"No." Juan said, "This is now between all of us. You think you can walk in here and beat up our friend?"

He pointed at Daryl, who was still holding his chest in pain.

"Now you're going to get down on your knees, and apologize to Daryl. Then you're going to go back to Sister Rachel and apologize to her for beating him up. Then you're gonna go to those two friends of yours and tell them you're above their rank and you're glad that Daryl beat em up, and you want nothing to do with them anymore. Do it, or we're going to put you in the ground."

"Man." James, the tallest of the group declared, "You think that she's crapping her suit already?"

"Wouldn't doubt it." Tom, the second tallest member replied.

Katie looked at each of them, as if she were calculating in her head, and nodded.

"Give me a second." She said, walking to the door.

The others looked at her cautiously, as she took out her cell phone, putting it on her shoulder, and then calling Arthur as she began to adjust her watch.

"Arthur?" She asked, as she set the watch gun to the recent settings that Bruce and Sabrina had added, "Yeah it's me. Listen; something's come up with a couple of 'old friends' of mine, and I have to do something for them, so I'll be a few minutes late. Yes, they're 'those' kinds of friends. It'll only take four-to-five minutes, I promise. Okay, thank you. Bye."

With that, she hung up and locked the doors tightly. This confused Daryl and his men as they wondered what Katie thought she could do in a suit like that.

"Good news and bad news." She said, "The good news is my boss has granted me permission to spend a few extra minutes with you. The bad news is that it basically means you're all screwed right now."

With that, she turned around and fired her watch gun into the three gang member's bodies. Suddenly, they all became very still and couldn't move anything. Katie smiled. The new gadget worked like a charm.

"Like it?" She asked, walking over to a pool table, and looking for the right kind of pool cue to use, "What you've been exposed to is a little something two of my friends have been working on. It's a new kind of serum that once introduced into your body, replicates the effects of a minor stroke, meaning for the next three minutes, you all can't move."

She found the right one and grabbed it tightly, slapping it into her open palm as she approached the three.

"But don't worry." She replied, "About the effects, I mean. It basically wears off after a while. But like I said, for three minutes, you should be worried about what I'm going to do to all of you."

With that, she swung the stick into James's mouth, knocking five teeth out and sending him to the ground with blood trailing from his lips. He'd be out for the next 4 hours, but he'd make it through with the amount of restraint Katie had put into that swing.

Flipping the cue around to the other side, Katie grasped it tightly, and swung it into Tom's head. The stick broke upon impact, leaving splinters impaled in Tom's head. He'd survive that one too, because Katie used the thinner end, meaning that the Doctor's would be able to remove that too when they got here.

Finally, she looked and Juan, who was trying to look horrified but couldn't due to the effects of her watch dart.

"Now." She replied, grabbing a glass jar that read 'Tips' in paint. "You're always talking about respect, but here's the thing; I know the real definition. Respect doesn't come from having guns, or bombs, or kung-fu skills. I'll tell you how you get respect."

She showed Juan the jar so he could see what it read.

"You have to earn respect, before people can start respecting you equally."

With that, she smashed the jar into Juan's head. There were some shards sticking out, but Katie knew it would be better if she hadn't used one of the glass jars that had beer previously poured into it, as it might hamper the paramedic's attempts to get the shard out and stop bleeding.

"And because of that, I'm respectful enough to let you all go now, even though you deserve a bullet to the head." Katie spat.

She turned her attention back to Daryl who was quaking in fear with a big wet stain on his pants.

How the mighty had fallen.

"Now as for you, you low-life scum…" Katie replied, grinning as she took out her gun.

"Oh god…no…" Daryl cried in pain and horror.

Katie also brought out her ID Badge so she could make sure her message got across.

"You're going to listen to me now, and I'm going to trust you'll tell your friends as well. If I see any of you even look at Abby or Tabatha again, I will come back here, expose your operations, shut you down, and kill you myself."

She kneeled down, pointing the gun at his head, and showing him her badge.

"See this?" She asked, "It means I can kill you when I fell like it and I will if I see you trying to hurt my friends again. Comprehend?"

"Y-yes!" Daryl cried, "O-Oh god! Please don't kill me!"

"Good chat." Katie smiled, "Have a lovely afternoon in the hospital with your friends then. Pleasure doing business with you."

With that, she walked outside and found a crowd already waiting with the usual policemen who always used to arrest her. Before they could ask what'd happened, Katie took out her ID and showed it to them, grinning as they looked in shock.

"Everything's under control here, officers." She said, "Special Status. It's perfectly valid."

The officers just nodded and she took off back to the orphanage. Using her skills, she went up the drain pipe on the back, clinging tightly as she pushed herself upwards until she was at Tabatha and Abby's room. Keeping one arm tightly around the drain pipe. She took out two fifty-dollar-bills she earned from her job, and a piece of white paper and a pen. Taking off the pen cap with her mouth, she quickly scribbled a note on there.

'Dear Abby and Tabatha,

Took care of Daryl for you.

Here's $50 for each of you.

Don't spend it all in one place.

I'll send you as much as my job will allow me when I can.

Katie.'

With that, she put the pen cap back on and placed the money in the note, and quietly opened the window. Then she placed the note on the inside and quietly shut the window again, before silently sliding back down.

"Impressive."

She turned to see Arthur smiling next to his car.

"You heard what happened?" She asked.

"I'm impressed with how you handled that problem." Arthur admitted, "Now that you've done your part, Mother Teresa, how do you feel driving for a change?"

Katie's eyes widened.

"But I thought I wasn't allowed to touch your car." She pointed out.

"That was before you impressed me, young woman." Arthur replied.

Katie smiled.

"Alright then." She said, getting in.

"Oh," Arthur said, as they buckled up, "And don't try any barrel rolls, okay? We're still working out a few kinks to my car after the incident."

"Spoilsport." Katie replied, as they drove off.

_**Later…**_

After sending Bruce, Sabrina, Faye, and Jessica off to other parts of the Bus to coordinate with Phil's other team members, Arthur and Katie walked upstairs to meet with the other coordinators of the operation. Standing in a circle was Hand, Sitwell, Tyler, May, Ward, and Coulson. Except in addition to the two newcomers, rounding out the group were Agents Garett, Triplett and Blake, the last of whom Arthur had never met in person till this moment.

As soon as the last two arrived, everyone took notice of them.

"Agent Williams, Agent Sheila." Coulson smiled, "Welcome."

"Thank you, Coulson." Arthur nodded, "Now what's this thing about that's so important that you had to bring all of us in?"

"Well," Phil said, "First off, we brought you all in here because of a precaution."

"A precaution against what?" Katie asked.

"The Clairvoyant." Phil said.

"I'm sorry…" Katie said, "Did you say 'Clairvoyant?!'"

"Oh, damn." Arthur swore, "Sorry, Katie. I forgot to tell you this. My apologies. It's been a busy day. Coulson, do you want to explain, or should I?"

"It's quite alright." Phil said, "Basically, my team has been following the trail of somebody using that codename and who has been causing quite a lot of trouble for S.H.I.E.L.D. recently. We can't confirm if he's a truce Clairvoyant, but he does seem to know a lot of our actions. Thus, the reason we're flying this high. If we're up here, we need to be as far away from him as possible."

"Figure maybe the Northern lights will knock a few bars off his psychic wi-fi." Garett pointed out.

"Coulson," Blake said, "You know S.H.I.E.L.D.'s stance on psychics; they don't exist."

"Are you suddenly a believer?" Hand asked, with a sarcastic smirk.

"Not definitively." Coulson replied, "But I recently encountered a woman from Asgard who could bend people's minds and it forced me to open my mind more, so to speak. Even so, one other person can vouch for someone who might be giving this person a hand in feeding them information."

He nodded at Arthur as he took the floor.

"If those aren't aware of my current missions." Arthur said, "It's because they've been hitting too close to home. Both literally and figuratively. In recent months, my team has been hit by a person going by the name of Igraine. We don't know a lot about her, other than the fact that she's female and she seems to know my team by heart as if she was there the whole time."

"It almost got him unbalanced a couple of times, but I can vouch for him." Tyler said.

"You can?" Hand asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Tyler nodded.

"Arthur noted that on a number of occasions there were instances of this Igraine person having valuable intel and recruitment. I recently underwent an investigation to try and retrieve a number of senators who went missing, but funnily enough, they showed up a few weeks later safe and sound."

"Just like a number of other famous individuals we've heard about." Katie said.

"CEO's, Former CIA Agents, Politicians…" Tyler said, "What links these people together? Who would want to target such a random group of individuals."

"One sick person with a lot of money." Arthur said, "All thanks to how the last Republican in the White House sent our economy dividing back to the Dark Ages. But it's beside the point. Right now, what we do know is that Igraine seems to know everything that's going on with us. She's called at exactly the right moments when we would force our hand and has knowledge about our team and individual past."

"You believe there's a mole in your team?" Garrett smirked, "Just set me loose on them, I'll figure out which one."

"Not funny, Garrett." Katie said, "And in case you needed to know, Igraine was also the name of an old CIA Case from years back that Director Fury tackled before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside Arthur's mom. Apparently she was exposed to something that we believe this Igraine is using now to help coordinate all these attacks with the Clairvoyant. So if this guy really is a con-artist, chances are he at least has someone on his payroll who is working for him who is."

"So far, all of our attempts at locating and apprehending this Igraine have been unsuccessful." Arthur admitted, "But right now, I have my team running through The Index of possible individuals who might be prime candidates for Igraine. We believe she might be in league with The Clairvoyant and I'm determined today that we put a stop to them both."

"I could not agree more." Coulson nodded, "Especially with Mike Peterson back alive and kicking. Or Deathlok as S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken to calling him nowadays."

"We were attempting to track him when he attacked us at our safehouse in Australia." Triplett noted.

"Which could possibly mean one thing." Garrett said, "We're getting close."

"To what?" Hand questioned, "His identity?"

Garrett and Coulson looked at each other before continuing.

"We've narrowed the list down to thirteen candidates." Garrett.

"Narrowed from what?" Blake asked.

"Agent Garrett has been taking a second look at the gifted index. Specifically the rejects."

"Isn't that the list of people who S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps tabs under until they know if they're special or not?" Katie asked.

Everyone looked at her surprised.

"I did my homework." She cracked.

"That is correct." Coulson nodded.

"So you think we've encountered The Clairvoyant before?" Sitwell asked.

"Think about how many cases we've done around the world. How many people we've vetted." Coulson explained, "It's possible."

"I need more coffee." Blake said.

"So let's assume what you're saying is possible." Hand suggested, "If we are going up against a natural Clairvoyant, and they are psychic or have someone who is. How do we proceed?"

"By compartmentalizing the information." Garrett explained.

"A member of my team is an expert at pattern recognition and analysis finding needles in haystacks." Phil said, as Katie smiled, knowing he was referring to Skye, "She'll prioritize the candidates on Garrett's list, locate them, then pair us off into random teams."

"Meanwhile," Arthur said, "My team will remain here and work on finding this Igraine. We find her, she could might as well lead us straight to the Clairvoyant. We'll stay up here with the remainder of Phil's team just in case any of them need to go out into the field. Even if the Clairvoyant or Igraine manage to get in, we'll all have different ideas of how to handle the situation."

"That way, only one person knows the full scope of the mission." Garrett said.

"You do understand." Hand explained, "This person you're referring to she'd need to be made a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent to be granted that level of access."

Coulson gave a smile.

"I'm glad you brought that up." He said, "Ward?"

Ward nodded as he went downstairs.

The others waited for a few minutes as Arthur began humming a little song to himself and Katie checked her watch.

Soon, Ward returned with Skye.

Coulson gave her the rundown and after listening, Skye nodded with approval.

"Pairing off makes total sense." Skye agreed, "Just one thought, though - what if we make it a double-blind?"

"How so?" Hand asked.

"Well," Skye explained, "I'll give one person from each team the potential Clairvoyant's coordinates, and I'll give the other one the identity."

"Just like what I'm having my team do right now." Arthur smiled, "Breaking them up into different groups."

"I like how you new young blood S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents think." Garrett smiled, addressing the rest of the room, "I like how they think."

"Right now, Jessica's taking some time to unwind." Arthur said, "I think she could use it after all the crap she's been through. Faye is going over my list of candidates for who Igraine might be. Give some outside experience which could be helpful since I don't tend to think that much of the people I felt I took care of. Finally, Bruce and Sabrina will be assisting Fitz and Simmons, and are prepared to fill in for them if need be."

"And what will you and Katie…" Agent Hand began.

"*Aheam!*" Arthur coughed, "Agent Sheila, remember. She's earned that."

"Right." Hand nodded, "What will you and Agent Sheila be doing in this time and place?" Hand asked.

"Agent Sheila can help where she's needed with the rest of my team." Arthur admitted, "I've spent a few days being harassed by a person who's probably just as bad as the next internet troll. I'm going to let out some steam and keep myself in top shape until we're ready to take Igraine down. After all, I'm never not in contact with the rest of my team, and I trust they'll tell me when they have a lead."

"Fair enough." Hand said.

"Just one question?" Skye pointed out, "How am I supposed to access all the classified files without someone in the room? I don't have clearance."

Phil nodded with a soft smile.

"Now you do." He said.

Skye looked at him surprised as he handed her an ID Wallet. An official S.H.I.E.L.D. ID Wallet.

"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye." Coulson said.

Skye looked back at him and then saw May arriving with Fitz and Simmons.

"I told them to come up." May explained, as everyone all gave smiles of approval.

Skye was looking a bit overwhelmed, but kept her composure.

"I…" She admitted, "I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"Don't thank me." Phil said, "You've passed every S.H.I.E.L.D. exam with flying colors."

"For a level one agent." Hand admitted.

Ignoring her, Coulson continued.

"You've assisted us on multiple field missions, put your life on the line." Coulson said, "You earned this."

"Hell you took two in the gut." Garrett said, "More than Sitwell here's ever done."

Sitwell nodded uncomfortably.

"Just one thing." Skye smiled, "When do I get a suit like Katie's?"

"Oh, this?" Katie asked, looking at her attire, "Oh, no. This is something that I earned after Arthur decided to graduate me with a life-or-death test with no outside help or tools on me. You'd have to be able to use your own wits to get through a mission like that."

"Don't worry." Arthur assured, "You'll get the hang of learning to improvise soon enough."

"Besides." Katie said, "It's not about the suit. It's about the person who wears the suit and the quality of their character that makes someone S.H.I.E.L.D."

Skye nodded.

"All right everyone." Phil said, "Back to work."

….

_**Later, The Bus's Labs…**_

Bruce and Sabrina were impressed by how neatly organized Fitz and Simmons labs were compared to their own.

"You seem impressed." Simmons pointed out.

"Well last time we were here, we didn't get the full tour per-say." Bruce said, as he looked through a computer's databanks.

"Well, surely your ship has more high-tech hardware than ours." Fitz replied.

"Nah." Bruce admitted, "Believe it or not, they're almost exactly the same."

The two stared at Bruce amazed.

"You're serious?" Fitz asked.

"The only parts that are more high-tech is what's built into the Spec-Ops Plane Itself. That doesn't mean anything built to furnish it."

"Even so." Fitz explained, "You might have probably a better plane than ours."

"Either way, both of our planes get the jobs done." Sabrina said, looking into a file on a computer, "Huh…interesting…"

"What is?" Jemma asked.

"This file here…" Sabrina pointed out, pulling it up, "Trudie Archer."

She began reading through the files.

"High test levels thought to be of ESP." Sabrina pointed out.

"ESP…" Bruce said out loud, "Isn't that…"

"Extra Sensory Perception." Jemma finished before addressing Bruce and Fitz who were looking a bit confused by all this, "It's a theory of people who can predict the future."

"Apparently S.H.I.E.L.D. had Arthur interview her one time to see if she was really as good as they said she was." Sabrina told them.

"And let me guess," Fitz suggested, "Arthur didn't take the proper time to interview her."

"No." Sabrina pointed out, "In fact, he disowned Trudie after a day of getting nowhere with her."

"Where is she now?" Bruce asked.

Sabrina looked into the file only to see a deceased notice with the cause of suicide.

"I don't buy it." Bruce said.

"Exactly." Sabrina pointed out, "We've already been through that problem, and we don't need a reminder that Igraine has the power to apparently save people from death itself."

"Very _Star Wars_-ish, don't you think?" Fitz asked.

"Don't mention it around Arthur, though." Bruce replied, "Apparently Katie actually found there was a separate _Indiana Jones_ disk of _Kingdom of the Crystal Skull_ that he asked to watch with her. The whole way through."

"What happened?" Jemma asked.

"Arthur ended up walking around the plane mortified for the next few hours after his viewing," Sabrina explained, "And kept repeating and I quote…"

She cleared her voice and began doing an impersonation of Arthur.

"'An entire Cold War Army…defeated by flying monkeys and a whiny little brat.'" She said before clearing her throat again.

"Wow!" Jemma smiled, "That's actually a pretty good impersonation of Arthur!"

"Still don't know what Arthur has against helper monkeys." Fitz said under his breath, "I actually do an okay version of Ward."

"Really?" Sabrina asked, "Can we hear it?"

"I'd rather not say in case he pops up again behind me." Fitz replied.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Jessica was trying to keep calm, but her nerves were constantly acting up. She felt as if there were a million bugs crawling all over her skin and she was losing faith that Fury had actually selected someone to help her out.

_Maybe if I just end it now…_ Jessica thought, _No…I can't. Come on, Jess. You handled terrorists better than this. Why is just a little bit of drawing getting you worked up?_

Perhaps it was because she didn't know everything she needed. For all she knew, she could be sharing the mind of a hostile alien that was trying to eat her mind away. Or worse.

_And that's the last time I sit down with Arthur and Katie to watch 'Aliens.' _Jessica thought.

As she turned a corner, a hand suddenly slapped over her mouth and pulled her into an empty room.

Finally, she could see who her kidnapper was and it turned out to be none other than Melinda May herself.

"Jessica." She said, "Don't panic. I'm not going to kill you. I'm Fury's secret help that he mentioned to you. Understand?"

Jessica nodded, and May removed her hand from Jessica's mouth.

"Thank you…" She said, "Just…why you?"

"I've known some people who understand how to read other people." May replied, "Now tell me; have you been experiencing any sleepwalking? Doing things you don't remember doing but ended up happening anyways?"

"Yes." Jessica replied, sadly.

"Any of these incidents involve drawing strange symbols that make no sense whatsoever?" May asked.

"Yes." Jessica nodded.

May looked at her sternly.

"Then this is as bad as Director Fury made it out to be." May replied.

"I'm sorry?" Jessica asked.

"Aside from Coulson and Skye, you are just one of the many people who had this drug used on you."

"You mean there's more people?!" Jessica asked, as quietly as she could.

"They all experienced the same symptoms of you from what I understand." May replied, "It's a miracle Phil lasted this long, but we can't risk him losing his mind just yet."

"Understood." Jessica agreed, "He's too emotionally unbalanced as it is. But even so, could you let me see one of these people who had the injection…"

"No." May replied bluntly, cutting her off, "They had their minds altered as well. Even if S.H.I.E.L.D. had left them the way they were before injection, the files have been completely redacted. I'm sorry, Jessica. But until we finish this, you have to deal with it."

"Then what am I supposed to do, May?" Jessica asked, "I was already having almost suicidal thoughts before you arrived, and I don't know what I can do to stop this from happening frequently…"

May put her hands on Jessica's shoulders.

"Jessica." She said, firmly, "Relax. Take a deep breath."

Jessica did so.

"Feel better?" May asked.

"Yes." Jessica replied, "Well, a little. I'm not sure."

"You sound all right to me for now." May figured, "Listen; one of the things you might want to consider doing is taking some time to unwind. Do some basic stress-relieving activities like yoga or sleep whenever possible and try not to think about it so often. That way, your anxiety doesn't end up triggering this sort of thing. It seems that those who went through the injections got worked up and went insane after obsessing over whatever it is you're going through. If you don't, then it won't happen as frequently. Okay?"

"All right." Jessica said.

May gave her one last serious look.

"Director Fury promised that he'd put all his best researchers into this once they were ready." May replied, "Just try to get through today's mission and you can leave whenever you feel like it."

Jessica nodded and went her own way. May prepared herself to go and get ready for Phil's assignment.

….

_**Later…**_

Arthur repeatedly jabbed away at the punching bag in front of him. He was dressed in some long gym pants and an armless white t-shirt. He was just plain angry now. The first mission had been a complete bust and now Agent Blake had been fatally wounded by Peterson (or Deathlok as he called himself.)

There was still no confirmation on where the Clairvoyant was, nor the location of Igraine.

Arthur felt like he was losing his patience as he repeatedly slugged away.

Finally, he gave one last hard punch to the square center of the bag. He looked down at his hands. His knuckles looked extremely white and his hands burning red.

"Wow." Katie said, entering the room while holding a file in her hands, "Punch that thing anymore, and I think you'd make a hole in the bag."

"Nah." Arthur said, wrapping a towel around his neck and then beginning to wipe his face, "I'm just letting off some steam. Anyways, did you want to talk to me about something?"

"Yes, in fact." Katie said, handing him the file, "We're on our way to Florida now. Apparently Blake hit Deathlok with a number of Fitz's tracking darts."

"Clever man." Arthur said, finishing wiping his face, "Though of course that means that we're going to have to change our plans now."

"Not entirely." Katie grinned.

Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Deathlok's been followed to an old race track in Pensacola." Katie replied, "And after doing some research with Skye's help. Guess who we found out was the sole inheritor of said racetrack?"

Arthur's eyes widened.

"That's right." Katie replied, "Your old friend, Trudie Archer. Apparently there's also been shipments moving into the place, but not out. Very _Zero Dark Thirty_-esque if you ask me."

"So this could be where our friend's been hiding out." Arthur said, as Katie handed him the file and he quickly scanned it, "Well done."

"So what are we gonna do now?" Katie asked.

"Follow Coulson's team there and see if we can take out Trudie Archer once and for all." Arthur said, leaving to get changed.

….

Meanwhile…

Jessica rarely slept at all, but when she did, she would usually have peaceful dreams.

Nowadays, she dreamt of terror and alien writing. She was in the process of having a nightmare where she had been locked away in an insane asylum by her friends and had begged for them to let her out. But Arthur and the others ignored her as Faye left with them, giving her an evil wink on the way out.

Alone, Jessica succumbed to her madness, drawing the mysterious carvings all along the walls. However, now she was out of room to draw on, as the entire walls and floor were covered in these drawings. Seeing no other option left, Jessica grabbed a nearby knife left behind with a tray of food and began cutting into herself to draw the symbols on.

It was just before she was about to slice through her right eye that she suddenly woke up, as someone pushed her.

Quickly maintaining the right position, Jessica saw that it was Faye.

"You all right, Jess?" She asked, feeling her forehead and looking surprised, "Jesus! What the hell's up with you? You feel like you've got a fever worse than the flu!"

"I think it's a side-effect of the serum." Jessica said, "I think it'll pass. Anyways…I assume we're landing soon, so I'll go ahead and inform Arthur."

"No." Faye said, pushing her back down, "We're all going to need to be on our A-Game here tonight. So I'll stay with you. I'll inform Arthur we won't be joining. Maybe we can put in a movie if you want."

With that, she left making Jessica feel only worse than she already was.

…

_**Pensacola, Florida…**_

Within a few minutes, Katie and Arthur were joining Coulson's Team as a horde of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents exited their cars. Their leading forces were now reduced to Arthur, Tyler, Coulson, and Garett. Sitwell had to go off on another important assignment, while Blake was taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. Medical Facility. Fortunately, Hand had returned to the Hub to help coordinate the mission from a distance.

Simmons and Triplett had also left to go there and help with whatever they could. Even without them, they had some of the best S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and Team Leaders to help capture an entire building ten times over.

"I want this perimeter sealed," Coulson replied, "Two man teams on every exit."

"Yes, sir." One of the agents said and walked off.

"Fitz!" Coulson called, "You got a signal?"

Fitz looked up from an iPad-like device.

"Ninety-four percent, sir." Fitz told him, "Deathlok must be inside somewhere."

"And hopefully Igraine as well." Arthur said, loading a gun.

"Kid," Garrett said, "I'd hate to break the illusion…"

"We've tracked the Clairvoyant here." Arthur said, giving him a stern look, "If she's not there we'll at least be able to get it out of him. Somehow."

"Possible civilians inside?" May asked.

"Highly doubtful." Fitz acknowledged, "This racetrack's been shut down for months."

"Move out!" May told the agents.

"Skye." Ward told the new young agent, "I want you in the van giving us tactical advantage."

He pointed to a nearby agent.

"I want you by her at all times." He said.

"Ward." Skye pleaded, "It's okay. I'm ready."

"Ward's right." Coulson said, with a hint of regret in his voice, "I feel bad enough that you're already back in the field. I don't want to take any chances with your safety."

Skye nodded and walked off with the other agent.

The others walked up to where Garrett was addressing the other agents.

"…the target's wearing body armor and has advanced cybernetics." He finished, "Make your shots count."

"And remember;" Arthur added, getting the other agents attention, "If you see either Thomas Nash or Trudie Archer, you report their location and stop anybody from moving them until one of us gets there."

"Let's move." Garrett smiled.

"You okay?" Arthur asked Katie, noticing she was looking a bit tense.

"I'm fine." She said.

"If you want to wait with Skye…" Arthur suggested.

"No." Katie said, cutting him off "I need to be able to prove I can handle myself in the field."

Arthur nodded.

"I'll have your back just in case." He assured.

"Just don't get yourself killed." She replied.

With that, the group entered into the large building. It was an old abandoned warehouse with only the sunlight from the broken glass to light the way.

"Fitz!" Coulson called, "You're up!"

Fitz got up and opened a briefcase containing a number of glowing orbs in a machine which soon began shooting.

"All right, boys." Fitz said, quietly, "Let's find us a Deathlok."

Soon, all the orbs shot up into the air and went off in different directions.

"Impressive toy." Garrett noted.

"I prefer the term 'High-Tech Hardware.'" Fitz replied with a smile, as he checked his iPad-like device.

"Skye?" Coulson said, into his earpiece, "You online."

The others waited for a response.

"What are you seeing?" Coulson finally asked.

They waited until Fitz pointed something out.

"Uh…" He said, "Signal's dead. Retriever's down."

"He knows we're here." May told the group.

"Fitz," Coulson said, "Get back to the van, now."

Fitz nodded and took off.

"All right." Coulson noted, "Let's try and split up."

"Ward," Arthur noted, "Look after Katie."

Katie looked at Arthur surprised, as did Ward.

"I have a feeling we'll need to spice things up a bit. Throw Peterson off for something he's not counting on."

"All right." Ward said.

"You got this?" Katie asked.

"Trust me." Arthur said, as she went to join Ward, "And Ward, don't let anything happen to her."

"Scout's honor." Ward said, sarcastically.

With that, Katie followed him down a flight of stairs while the other agents took different vantage points. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs however, Katie stopped and held her hand up, as if she had noticed something.

"What is it?" Ward asked.

She put a finger to her mouth indicating for him to keep quiet and listen.

He did and suddenly, he heard a faint beeping noise.

Quickly turning to the source, the two found Mike Peterson standing right there, holding his right arm out at them as a rocket launched began to appear from the wrist section.

"GET DOWN!" Katie screamed at the top of her lungs, pushing Ward down.

With that, Peterson fired as the missile hit the wall sending a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents flying backwards.

Not wanting to lose him, Katie got up and began following him quickly. She finally understood what Arthur had meant when he told her that life was not like an action movie. This could seriously hurt a person and without the proper training like she had, she might've missed the beeping noise and would be incinerated by the blast.

Running faster than she had before, Katie followed him down the southwest stairwell, then, leapt forward and struck at the back of Peterson's head. The head was harder than she thought, but she wasn't experiencing any broken bones. However Peterson turned around to face her, indicating she had gotten his attention.

"Mr. Peterson." She said, pleadingly, "Listen to me; my name's Katie Sheila of S.H.I.E.L.D. We've never met personally, but I know all about you."

"Then you know that I have to kill you." Peterson said.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Katie admitted.

With that, Peterson threw a punch at Katie which she rolled and dodged. Peterson's punch hit the concrete support behind her and took some of the stone off with it.

"Mr. Peterson, please!" Katie begged, as she blocked a right punch from him with her hands "We can still fix this! I…"

She was cut short when Peterson used his other hand and grabbed Katie by the throat.

"You don't understand." He told her, as Katie gasped looking at him with pleading eyes, trying to pull his arm away, "I don't want to do this. But I have no choice now."

Just then, Coulson, Arthur, and the others arrived at the top of the stairs surrounding him.

Peterson looked at them and then back at Katie.

"Good news, Agent Sheila." He told her, "You get to live for now. But be careful if we cross paths again. I might not be told to leave you alone again."

With that, he released her onto the ground and took off as Katie gasped desperately for breath. Arthur and Ward arrived and helped her up as they followed Phil.

"That was insane." Arthur pointed out.

"I know." Katie said, gathering her breath, "But…I got a tracker on him when I was pretending to struggle."

"Good job." Arthur said.

"But it doesn't get good reception in this area." Katie pointed out, "So…just as long as he doesn't remove it before leaving…we'll know where he is."

With that, the two followed Coulson and Garrett down a dark tunnel.

"Hey…Arthur…" Faye said over the communications.

"Yeah, Faye?" Arthur asked, into his earpiece.

"Katie's asleep and I decided to monitor you guys, and not to scare you, but…there's two other people we're picking up down there. Besides Deathlok."

Arthur, Katie and Ward looked at each other seriously.

"Copy that." Arthur pointed out, "Stay sharp."

With that, Katie took out her gun as did Arthur and Ward. May and Tyler suddenly arrived with a few more agents and they all entered the room

Finally, they found Phil and Garrett looking at a chair faced away from them, positioned in front of a large TV Screen.

Looking on the other side, they all became tense as they saw it was Thomas Nash. He was clearly in a catatonic state with a tube in his nose, and a heart monitor on one of the screens.

"Agent Ward." A computer-like voice pointed out, "Agent May. Agent Williams. Agent Boateng. Agent Sheila. So nice of you and your friends to join us. You'll forgive me if we don't shake hands. I don't like to be touched."

"You have no idea how weird that sounded, do you?" Katie asked, trying to mask the fear she was feeling.

"If you wish to speak to someone else, Agent Shelia." Nash's computer said, "There's someone waiting in the backroom that's been dying to meet you. You, Agent Williams, and Agent Boateng can join her in the back room. The rest of you can wait here."

"Why only us?" Arthur asked, "And what's to stop everyone else from storming the back room?"

"My friend specifically asked for you only." The computer answered, "However, should anybody else uninvited join you back there, my partner has a remote detonator and will blow up the building taking all of us with it. But I can't stop you. Even if I could stop you, I know your answer already."

Arthur looked at Coulson and nodded.

"Keep a team ready back there just in case." Arthur pointed out.

Phil nodded.

Arthur moved around the TV screen, Katie and Tyler following close behind.

When they saw who was there, they quickly raised their weapons up defensively, ready for the first sign of trouble.

Sitting in a recliner-like chair was Trudie Archer. However, she was not the same late-twenty-something woman Arthur remembered, but was an old woman with white hair and lines across her face. She had a tray table with mashed food and pills on a plate with a glass of water across her lap. Next to her was a nightstand with a remote detonator placed in the center.

"Agent Arthur Williams." She said in a hoarse and raspy voice, turning to see him with a weak smile, "My, my, my. What an expected visit. I see you've brought your friends with you as always. Then again, I think my request was a good enough reason for you to come down here with them."

The group kept their guns focused on her as Arthur took a position behind her. Tyler took the right side, and Katie took the left.

"Oh, please. Gentlemen and lady." Trudie chuckled weakly, "I'm in no position to hurt you. Though I assume you want to hurt me now."

"Yes." Arthur said, tightening his grip on his own gun, "I'd like to hurt you a lot right now. I'd like to just unload my gun on you while screaming like a madman."

"But you won't." Igraine smiled, "Because you've changed."

"I have." Arthur nodded, "Which is why instead I'll see to it you rot whatever life you have left, locked up deep in some damp and cold cell."

"Tell me, Mr. Williams." The old woman laughed, "What do you remember about our last encounter?"

"Not a lot to be honest." Arthur admitted.

"I remember it perfectly." Igraine replied, "You walked it clearly not giving a damn about what was happening. You read a sheet of paper just to tell me I might be special. Then when it was all over, you stayed for one night as people preformed tests on me and then threw me away like some cheap piece of trash."

"That's the first thing you've said that I can agree on." Arthur replied, sarcastically.

"But can your young protégé agree on what's happened with her, I wonder?" Igraine asked, "Tell me, Agent Sheila. What do you know about Operation: Crossfire?"

"I haven't reached that chapter in my training yet." Katie said, sarcastically, "Look, Trudie…Igraine…whatever the hell you want to call yourself…I don't know much about spies yet as Arthur does, I don't even know any of the stuff he's done. But what I do know about him is this; he's my friend. He's been a father figure that I never even had. And yeah, he can be a hard-ass some of the time…"

Arthur looked at his protégé surprised.

"But he's my hard-ass." Katie acknowledged, "And you know what? I'm glad I met him. He's probably the best thing to ever happen to me in my life."

"Thank you, Katie." Arthur acknowledged.

"You're very welcome, Arthur." Katie replied.

"I see…" Igraine said, taking a bit out of the mashed food, "Well, Operation: Crossfire was one of the first Level 5 Missions he ever did for S.H.I.E.L.D. following his graduation from the Academy. The mission was that a Princess of a micro nation had threatened to start a war with both the United States and Al-Quaeda. This would've lead to another World War and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't want to wait for the government to wake up after another incident which took millions of lives had occurred which could've been easily prevented earlier. Do you know what he did, Katie? He went up to her the day she was announcing her engagement to a royal prince and poisoned her drink. When she offered the toast to the crowd, she swallowed a solution that completely destroyed her internal organs and the children she had been carrying to her husband-to-be, killing her. And you know what Mr. Williams did next? He helped replace her with a foreigner who went on to steal the affections of the late-Princess's former fiancé and convert him to establishing a government completely devoid of the politics she had created. He forced another person into a changed relationship and made him forget all about the princess. Then he simply went home, wrote it off, and went to sleep not considering the actions of what he had done."

She took a sip of her water, as Arthur was holding his gun at her, almost as if he was going to fire at any second.

"And that's just one of the many atrocities he's committed." Igraine said, "The poisoning of the hate-church in Nevada, the explosion that destroyed a small rainforest base in Rio…he's got just as many crimes that he's committed as you, Agent Sheila."

Katie looked at her seriously as she smiled at her.

"Oh, and I know all about you and Agent Boateng. While he has his dirty secrets including that of murder, I must confess your history has been quite fascinating to see. I wonder whether you'll end up in heaven or in hell when you die. I do wonder…"

"Shut up." Katie said, softly.

"Or whether you'll see your Sister again in the next life…"

"Shut up!" Katie yelled, shoving her gun into Trudie's head.

"Agent Sheila!" Tyler declared.

"You might be a psychic or a fraud, but you don't know jack about me!" Katie declared.

"On the contrary, Ms. Sheila." Igraine smiled, "I know more about you than you do. In fact, I know things you have been searching for. Your past history, your parents. Your real parents."

Katie looked surprised, but quickly backed away.

"Yeah, I know." She said, "Then you want me to join you in helping to giving you the Sorcerer's Stone, and that I have no other faith but what I make it, it's my destiny, blah, blah, blah. Nice try, Igraine. But Arthur's right. You're not going anywhere except to prison for a long time."

"Whether prison, or death's cold embrace." Igraine said, "Wherever you go, I will be watching all of you."

There was suddenly a gunshot. Tyler noticed Igraine was reaching for her remote and quickly shot at her. The first bullet went straight through her head, leaving a large red mark in the center of her forehead which quickly began bleeding. Arthur and Katie looked at him shocked.

"She was going for the device." He answered.

….

_**Later, The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur looked over his paperwork. He would normally be great at this thing, but tonight, there was something he still felt was wrong. Igraine had been killed (as was the Clairvoyant, who had been shot by Ward,) and the recovery teams were taking out any of the hardware that the two had left behind on their monitors. Any minute now it would be on the computers inside the Spec-Ops Plane. Tyler was with Ward being transferred back to the Hub for questioning on their choice of actions.

Everything seemed all right.

So why did he feel so paranoid? Maybe it was because this had been one of the most serious cases he'd gone through so far. Maybe it was the near-death experience of his teammates and learning about their past history as well. He even had suggested that perhaps Igraine would be watching him from beyond the grave.

He sighed heavily. He needed to take his mind off of this.

Reaching into his desk, he took out a DVD that Katie had allowed him to rent out.

_Army of Darkness._ Arthur shrugged, _Sure. Why the hell not?_

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

Jessica was flying the plane again. Alone with no one else to bother her and at just the right altitude she needed to be at to contact Fury without anyone realizing it.

Quickly switching to auto-pilot, she left the pilot's desk sneaking past the other rooms before making her way to the secret phone. Picking it up, she waited until someone answered on the third call.

"…Good." Fury's voice answered on the third ring, "Agent Smith. What is it? I'm in the middle of some kind of bad feeling based on the intel you got me."

"Sir…" Jessica said, "When can I expect the help for…"

There was suddenly a loud crash then static.

"Sir?!" Jessica yelled.

No response.

"Sir!" She screamed.

Suddenly, she began lightheaded and almost felt like she was sleepwalking.

_Oh god!_ She thought, _No! Not now! Not now!_

But she couldn't help herself as she was already walking out against her own will.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Ah, feels good to be back in the lab." Sabrina said, as she and Bruce finished moving the gear they had taken to the bus back in its proper order.

"Yeah." Bruce noted.

He felt so nervous now around Sabrina. Everything he had been told about how to handle the women around him seemed to be flowing through his head at once. He tried to sort out what it meant, but the only answer he could figure was that he would just have to admit his feelings for her right here and now.

"Look…uh…Sabrina…" Bruce asked.

"Yes, Bruce?" Sabrina asked.

"Can I admit something to you?" He asked, cautiously.

"Oh no…" Sabrina said, worriedly, "This isn't like what happened with me, is it, Bruce?"

"What?" Bruce asked, "No…it's nothing like that. I promise."

"Okay?" Sabrina said cautiously.

"Sabrina…" Bruce said, "In the past few weeks, we've worked together as a team. Then during that incident with your brother, you admitted that you found me as a good friend to you. I feel the same way."

"And?" Sabrina asked, "I think there's more to it than that."

"There is…" Bruce admitted, looking at her, "Sabrina…I think I'm become quite fond of you lately."

Sabrina looked at him surprised.

"Fond?" She asked.

"Do uh…do people not say fond anymore?" Bruce asked, "I'm sorry. I don't know what people say when they…when they want to kiss someone."

"I think…" Sabrina said, leaning in, "I think they just do it."

With that, the two leaned in and their lips locked. The two moaned enjoying the kiss until something caught Bruce's attention and he pulled away.

"Bruce?" Sabrina asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's Jessica…" He said, motioning towards Jess who was grabbing a sheet of thin metal and a knife.

"What the hell is she doing?" Sabrina asked.

"I don't know." Bruce said, "But I've got a nasty suspicion that it's nothing good. Wait here, Sabrina."

"No." Sabrina said, "I'm in this with you, Bruce. Partners till the end."

Bruce gave a small smile.

"Okay." He said, "But stay close and let's try not to act too suspicious."

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

There was a knock on Arthur's door as he looked up.

"Come in." Arthur called.

The door opened and Katie and Faye entered the room.

"Nice movie." Faye said.

"How are you feeling?" Katie asked.

"Not good." Arthur admitted, "I just keep feeling like…maybe we did something wrong."

"It's okay, Arthur." Faye assured, "It's just this is the first time you've completed an assignment and you weren't such a 'hard-ass' as Katie stated. Now look, why don't you finish up the paperwork and…"

"Hold on…" Arthur said, suddenly realizing something, "What did you say…?"

"I said you shouldn't take this too seriously…"

"No." Arthur corrected, "The paperwork…"

He suddenly pulled up all his files on his tablet.

"Operation: Crossfire…" He pointed out, "The files she mentioned, they're all here."

"So?" Katie asked.

"She might not've been psychic the whole time." Arthur pointed out, "The details, they're right here."

Arthur pulled up the info on a hologram containing the contents of Operation: Crossfire, revealing it to be a word-for-word repeat of how Igraine explained it.

"Oh god." Katie realized as she and Faye looked horrified.

"Igraine still out there." Arthur pointed out, "And that must mean the Clairvoyant's out there too."

"And whoever they are…" Katie whispered.

"They're agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Arthur explained, "That explains how they knew so much and why they needed Coulson."

"Wait a second…" Katie asked, "Where's Faye?"

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Jessica was carving the symbols into the metal sheet she had taken on the floor of her bedroom. She didn't care about what she was doing anymore. She felt long-gone and now nobody would be able to cure her.

Suddenly, she heard a knocking at her door.

"JESSICA!" Faye declared, "Open up!"

Jessica swore as a gun burst through the glass door to her room, and a hand stretched further inside.

"I'm giving you a chance to come quietly!" Faye declared.

To hell with this. Jessica thought.

With that, she grabbed Faye's arm and slammed it into the side where some glass still remained stuck in there. Faye gave a yell of pain and Jessica slid the door open so Faye was stuck halfway by the moving door.

Jessica needed to get out of there now.

"Hey!"

She looked up to see Bruce and Sabrina holding two icers in her direction. Jessica ran forward, dodging the shots from the two, and tackled them with two arms to the ground. Getting back up, Jessica made her way to the hangar and opened the cargo door revealing the dark cloudy sky and letting the nippy cold air in. She began to unlatch Arthur's car, when she felt something press into the back of her head.

"Don't. Even. Think about it."

She held her hands up.

"Now turn around."

Jessica did so, to see Arthur pointing a gun at her. He was soon flanked by Bruce and Katie. Sabrina soon joined them, supporting Faye who held her arm in pain.

"So what's been going on, Jessica?" Arthur asked, "Any secrets you'd like to share with us?"

"I don't…"

"SHUT UP!" Arthur yelled, "We've been through hell today, and now you're going to tell us what you've been doing! Right now!"

"Arthur, please!" She said, "I'm working for Fury."

"Bull!" Arthur spat, "How do you explain the strange act you've been putting on recently. Speaking of which, when did that happen? Oh yeah. After we saved your life when you disobeyed a direct order I gave the team and went to capture Anber Jenkins alone. You'd better start with some serious evidence to back up your claims, Jessica. Or things will get very messy very quickly."

Suddenly, a red emergency light began flashing.

"The hell is that?!" Arthur demanded.

Suddenly, Bruce saw that the computers were turning on.

"Oh, crap!" He swore, "Guys! You'd better see this!"

Suddenly, the screens began typing in text seemingly on their own.

'Congratulations, Agent Williams. I assume by now you've figured out that the person your teams killed weren't actually me or the Clairvoyant.'

"I knew it." Arthur murmured.

'Unfortunately, a prominent agent of your organization has just ousted my group for who they are.'

"Who they are?!" Arthur demanded, "What is she talking about?!"

'Fortunately, despite them beginning to leak precious documents from my benefactor, I am fortunately safe from having my identity exposed as my transactions with said organization have all been handled with paper and a pen. Easier to avoid hacking and makes for much more secrecy. Now as much as I would love to finish our chat, I'm afraid it'll have to conclude when we finally see each other face-to-face and in person for the first time in a while. We have plans for you yet, Mr. Williams, and I look forward to properly meeting you in person soon enough. Now, with that said, I leave you with the slogan of my organization.'

With that, two words appeared on the screen. Everybody looked at it and suddenly, all knew they were in deep trouble now.

'HAIL HYDRA.'

"Shit." Arthur swore.

…

'**Aaaannnddd now It's…..springtime for HYDRA and Germany…' Right? The Producers? Mel Brooks film? *sigh* Nobody appreciates the fine arts anymore. Anyways, this was obviously a long chapter to get down, and next chapter will probably take longer. But as Bruce and Sabrina have taken their relationship to a new level, the team will be tested next chapter by more challenges and Igraine is one step closer to her ultimate plan for HYDRA. Hope to see you next time. As always, reviews are appreciated just without the flames. And again, I own NOTHING. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! Hope to see you here next chapter.**


	13. Who do you trust?

**Hi everyone! Welcome to the next chapter of The Other Team. Before we begin, I'd like to say thank you as always for all the wonderful feedback. Unfortunately, I just lost one of my old college professors who was always very supportive of my work and was one of the first professors I ever had during my first year of college. He will be missed, but I know he wouldn't want me to mourn his loss forever. So I just needed to get that out. On the subject of one of the reviews left by the appropriately-named AwesomeGirl, she asked if I would be taking a hiatus much like in the TV Series, or continue writing in the summer. Well guess what? With the way I'm writing, I'll think I'll have the first few chapters ready by the first week of summer. Yeah! Better yet, we're almost in the home stretch if you can believe it! This fanfic is nearly complete now and there are only two more chapters to go before the grand finale. And trust me; you will not want to miss the next two as they not only a representation of what makes AoS so great, but it's also my own personal love letter to action movies and has more than enough explosions to put Michael Bay out of business. But I digress. Let's move on to the current chapter right now before I end up accidently spoiling the secrets I still have left to show. As a fair warning, the ending might be a bit violent and there's a lot more swearing going on here, and there'll be a little more in the next few chapters. But I have tried my best to keep it on the T rating, so hopefully it'll pass. The last thing I'll mention is that this chapter might be short, but the next one will be much longer and contain A LOT of Action. And I do mean A LOT. As always, please leave reviews, but no flames. And as always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for Fan-Purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue! With that said, enjoy.**

_**The Bus…**_

Tyler Boateng was never one for small talk. He was usually the kind of guy who went in and got the job done without any kind of talking. He was rarely a sociable guy, but in some cases, he could be friendly with other people. Even now when being brought to the Hub, locked up in the Bus with Agent Ward as the both of them were now under suspicion for imminently killing the targets on the most recent mission without questioning them first. That also included the strange turbulence that they were experiencing. In this case, he couldn't help but ask his fellow Agent one question.

"So…" He said, "I've been hearing rumors that you and May were sleeping together."

Ward just looked at him without any emotion.

"I have my sources." He said.

"Then why ask?" Ward questioned.

"Well," Tyler said, "The way I see it, if we're being brought to the Hub, we might as well make the best of our free time."

Ward sighed.

Before he could answer, the doors opened up and Coulson and Fitz entered, carrying May, who was unconscious and handcuffed.

"What's going on?" Ward asked.

"She's a sleeper!" Phil told them, laying her body down gently.

He paused and then looked at the two.

"The other kind." He said, "I'll explain later…"

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur couldn't believe what had happened. He knew something was going down the minute he stepped back onto the Spec-Ops Plane, but this was a bit hard for him to accept. First, he found out one of his most trusted agents, someone he almost considered to be a friend to him that he owed a great debt to, had been keeping secrets from the team. Now, he discovered that Igraine was still alive and worst yet, she was working for one of the worst organizations possible.

"HYDRA…" Arthur said, so quietly he wasn't even sure his team had heard him.

"But that's impossible." Katie said, equally horrified, "HYDRA was defeated following World War II."

"It was." Arthur said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded in the wake of the Second World War, creating a new organization to replace the SSR."

"So what does this all mean?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not sure." Arthur explained, pointing his gun at Jessica, "Unless Jessica here wants to further elaborate things."

"I don't know anything…" She began.

"STOP LYING!" Arthur yelled, scaring her a little, "You've been keeping this for a long time, it seems. In fact, I bet you might've even tipped off Igraine when you decided to run away and try to capture Jenkins…"

"I swear, I'm not working with Igraine…" Jessica pleaded, "My recent behavior has been a result of the serum you've given me. Please, I'm barely holding onto my sanity as it is…"

"How the hell do you know it's the serum that's making you do this?!" Arthur questioned, "And who else is in on this…"

"I'M WORKING FOR DIRECTOR FURY!"

Everyone kept their guns pointed at the pilot, but showed their amazement. Jessica sighed.

"Director Fury came to me the day I was recruited for your team." She said, "He was suspicious that someone or something might've been working within S.H.I.E.L.D., and asked me to do some undercover work for him. That's the truth, I swear to god."

"So you were spying on me?!" Arthur asked, "Even after you told me I should start trusting people?! Trusting you?!"

Before Jessica could respond, the plane shook greatly and began falling straight downwards.

"What the hell is that?!" Faye demanded.

"Emergency shutdown." Jessica said, now feeling worried herself, "Command can shut down the plane's engines remotely whenever they feel like it."

"Great." Arthur said, sarcastically, "Because today could not get any worse."

He looked at her seriously.

"If you have a way to stop it, now's the time to tell us."

"You have to go into the engine room and shutdown the plane entirely to reboot it." Jessica said, "I already know Bruce here has been working on a virus wiper ever since our incident with the Trinity of Torture."

"All right, fine." Bruce said, getting tired of all the secrets, "I'll get it installed."

"You need me to help with the override, though." Jessica stated.

"Then get cracking." Arthur told her, moving her forward with his gun placed firmly in her back, "But try anything, and crashing will be the least of your problems."

Jessica nodded.

"Faye, take the pilot's seat and be ready to either run or fly whenever we need you." Arthur explained, "The rest of you start packing in case we don't make it in time."

….

_**Soon…**_

Arthur, Bruce, and Jessica entered the main engine room which was entirely comprised of different computers resembling the system unit of a computer, with different USB drives. Bruce had some kind of device in his hand which resembled a flash drive.

"We're on a clock, Jess." Arthur explained, "Now override this thing."

"Okay." Jessica said, moving behind one of the machines as Arthur stayed close behind her with his gun in his hand.

With that, she quickly took out and rearranged some wire cables and then flicked a red switch. Instantly, all the lights turned off, and she began counting to herself.

_1…2…3…4…5...6…7…_

"And time now, Jessica!" Arthur said.

"Okay!" She screamed, finishing counting down, "Bruce, put your device in and activate it remotely."

"That won't work when it's…"

"JUST DO IT!"

Arthur pressed his gun tighter into her back while keeping one of Jessica's arms held tightly behind there as well.

"Please." She said, as kindly as possible.

Bruce sighed and did so anyways. Using her free hand, Jessica flicked the switch back on and the lights returned.

"Faye!" Arthur asked into his communications link, "Do you have control of the plane again?"

"I do now!" She said.

"Then make us fly!"

With that, the plane steered upwards again and continued its flight.

…

_**Meanwhile, The Hub…**_

"Wonderful…" Victoria Hand said, sarcastically, "So not only have we failed to blow up John Garrett; not only is he now in league with Coulson's team, but our entire state-of-the-art Spec-Ops Plane just got hacked by Arthur's top engineer and now it's out of our control."

"I'm sorry, ma'am." A lone agent said, typing away at the computer, "But the signal has been blocked by some kind of new protection that we can't crack."

Hand gave a groan of annoyance and disapproval. This was not going well for her today.

"All right." She said, looking at the world map on the screen in front of her, "Arthur's team is not that far away from where the Bus is. Most likely, Arthur will be able to find a communication with him and they'll both be coming here. When they do, we kill everyone on both planes. Understood?"

All the agents available nodded.

"Good." She said, "Let's get ready to greet them then…"

….

_**The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

"What in god's name were you thinking?!"

Jessica groaned as Arthur paced back and forth in the interrogation room. Katie stood with one foot against the wall, giving an equal look of disappointment.

"Director Fury asked me." She said, "What was I supposed to do?!"

"You could've been more honest about it!" Arthur declared, "I swear to god, Jessica. How long has this been going on, and who else was in on this?! How long were you making choices for me?!"

"It's not that simple…"

"No." Arthur laughed, with his sarcasm clear in his voice, "It never is. That's always the excuse you've been giving us so far."

"Arthur," She told him, "With due respect, you almost kicked Katie here off the team when you didn't like her tactics. And I know I remember you said you were gonna quiz her, but even then you had the deck rigged and stacked against her with no chance of her getting 100% completion…"

"Don't bullshit me, Jessica." Arthur swore at her, "I'm perfectly aware that you helped make me better, but right now, you're in no position to win yourself a 'get-out-of-jail-for-free' card where you're sitting. So out with it! Who else has been working on spying on other Agents? Or am I just a special case as you originally thought."

He leaned in so she was looking straight into his eyes which seemed to be burning with hate right now. She wondered if this was how Cesare felt when Brutus stabbed him before he died.

"Oh, yes." Arthur replied, "I read about your reports on your first assessment of me. You said, and I quote, 'Arthur Williams is an overachiever. He's an agent who's better than he needs to be. He constantly makes other agents look like crap; he cares nothing for other teammates; and when he was put on a date set-up by S.H.I.E.L.D. to get him to stop working, he ended up ruining the date and sending the agent who went with him home unhappy before he went back to work. It is in my professional opinion that Arthur Williams is a rare, one-of-a-kind case that can't be controlled even when he's working for S.H.I.E.L.D.'"

"That was before you shared your past with us…" Jessica pleaded.

"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" Arthur yelled, slamming his fist down on the table and startling Jessica a little bit, "ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION!"

Jessica sighed, as she looked at him seriously.

"The only person I knew who was in on this was Melinda May. She was working on spying on Coulson's team for any signs of trouble with him. To what end, I don't know."

"But you suspected." Arthur said, "Fury suspected as well and didn't tell any of us. We all screwed around in the dark like a bunch of morons. YOU were the one who told me to trust people more often, Jessica. If what your story about your last contact with Director Fury is true, he's probably dead now because of you. How many more people are going to die now because you failed to tell us that someone might've infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Do your worst to me." Jessica told him, softly.

Arthur's eyebrows raised.

"I'm sorry?" He asked.

"I said do your worst to me, Arthur." She said, "Blame me for everything. Beat me until I'm within an inch of my life or dead. Lock me away forever and throw away the key. Throw me out of S.H.I.E.L.D. It doesn't matter. Right now my own sanity is slipping because of the cure you gave me. I might as well be six feet under right now, and I might as well die. I've already told you everything, Arthur. And I'm the one who survived never breaking when I was beaten to death and almost killed for not giving information. So whatever you have planned, just do it."

Arthur just stood there in silence. So many emotions were flooding through his head at once. On one hand, he still respected Jessica and wanted to say he was sorry. On the other, he felt guilty that his course of action to save Jessica's life had taken a turn for the worst (mainly in regards to her now preferring death over living any longer with the mysterious instances of her carving some kind of weird symbols.) He still felt rage at her that she was daring to defy his clearance and felt like he should subdue her, but Arthur couldn't find the strength to convey any of these emotions or actions to her.

Right now, in what was probably the first time in his life, Arthur Williams did not know what to do.

Suddenly, a beeping noise came from Katie's phone, and she pulled it out, her eyes widening.

"Arthur?" She asked, "You're going to want to see this."

Arthur looked over and saw it was none other than Tyler Boateng himself. He was standing in the meeting room of the Bus where Coulson, Garrett, Ward, Fitz, and Skye were also visible in both the background and foreground.

"Agent Boateng!" He said, "Finally."

"Arthur…" Boateng said, "Please tell me you are who you say you are."

"We're all clean here." Arthur said, "Except for Jessica. Turns out she was spying on us for Fury the whole time. Say Melinda May was in on it to."

"I noticed." He said, "Listen; we're stuck on a collision course for the Hub. Any chance you could get us out?"

"Unfortunately not." Arthur said, "With the speed you're going, jumping would be like suicide. But maybe I have another idea about how we can help."

"Well you'd better hurry up." Garrett said, "Because we believe that Victoria Hand might be the Clairvoyant."

"Seriously?" Katie asked.

"I don't wanna believe it myself, but Coulson has it on a pretty good guess she's been the one pulling the strings this whole time. Might even know where Igraine is."

"Cool. But there's just one problem. When we get there though, you can bet HYDRA will be waiting for us." Arthur said, "I trust you have an escape plan."

"Leave it to me." Fitz grinned.

…

_**Soon…**_

The Spec-Ops Plane was cloaked and attatched to the Bus by the time the Bus landed within the Hub.

Right now, Arthur was waiting in the main foyer area with Tyler. Couslon had taken May downstairs with him to try and contact Director Fury, but they were being attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents that might or might not be HYDRA.

As Arthur waited for the word to see if Fury could help, or they would need to proceed on their own, Katie came up to him with a tablet.

"So, uh…" She said, "This just came in over the comms. I think you might want to hear it."

Arthur took the tablet and saw it was a sound file, and pressed 'PLAY.'

"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," A voice from Arthur's childhood memories called out, "This is Steve Rogers."

Everyone listened closely on what the Living Legend of World War II was saying.

"You're heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time to tell the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury. And it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

With that, the file finished.

"Guess we're on our own." Arthur pointed out, "Still, The Captain's right. The price of freedom is high. We need to take this base back in case HYDRA decides to get their hands on any weapons."

"When they already have Project: Insight?" Tyler asked.

"Tyler," Arthur said, "You might not have studied him as hard as I have in history, but Steve Rogers always beats HYDRA in the end. Even if he doesn't make it, there's still a chance that they might need more incentives here."

Tyler sighed and nodded.

"You're right." He said.

"Don't sweat it." Arthur pointed out, as Coulson arrived.

"Director Fury's dead." He declared.

"We heard." Arthur told him.

"From who?" Coulson asked.

"An old friend of yours let's say." Arthur assured, "One whom you and I look up to in times of doubt."

Coulson nodded.

"He is something isn't he?" Coulson asked, "The only regret is that he signed my cards after Director Fury got all that fake blood on there."

"Understandable." Arthur said, "So what's the plan?"

…

_**Soon…**_

Katie never imagined that after joining S.H.I.E.L.D., she'd be faking getting arrested in order to break into a secure facility that was under siege by sleeper agents.

Right now, Coulson and his team, as well as Arthur and his, were being led by Garrett who was wearing (in Katie's opinion,) a weak disguise featuring a baseball cap and an overcoat. Garrett assured her it would work, but Katie had her doubts. Their goal was simple, get in, ice (pun intended,) the agents in the control room, and hopefully locate Simmons and Triplett.

They were lucky to get out of the bus as Fitz had an old gadget of his that helped them cut through the floor and escape underground. From there, it was just a simple matter of getting back up and splitting the teams up from there.

Skye and Ward had been sent to disable part of the systems in the Hub. Specifically, their control over the Bus. Leaving the rest of them to try and locate the missing agents.

May and Jessica made up the penultimate part of the line, both cuffed.

"I think I'm not feeling the need to carve or draw right now." Jessica pointed out, "That's helpful."

May remained silent.

"May, please." Jessica begged, "I need help. I'm nervous and quite frankly, between HYDRA, the mysterious artistic habits, and now having to admit I've betrayed my friend's trust, I don't know if I can trust myself anymore."

"Quiet!" Arthur scolded, "We're almost there. And if I hear you saying 'Hail HYDRA,' I swear to god I will drop you both where you stand."

Jessica shut it, and they entered.

"Coulson and William's team." An agent said, "What a great catch."

Garrett held his head down, pretending he had an injury.

"We caught em." He said, "The slippery bastards. Agent May took one of mine in the arm. Softie there let her bleed out."

"Do you need medical assistance?" The agent asked.

"No." Garrett smiled, "Just your side-arm."

With that, he struck him in the face as everyone else made their moves.

Without a warning for the guards, the others took their icers out and shot the other agents, taking them down.

"Okay, Simmons." Fitz said, instantly looking into one of the computers, "Where are you?"

"Hope she's all right." Katie said, "Triplett too."

"Hopefully we can find them and take care of Vicky." Garrett said.

"So we're just assuming if she's the Clairvoyant?" Bruce asked.

Everybody looked at him.

"If I may," Sabrina added, "Last time we made that kind of assumption, we ended up killing the wrong person."

"I agree." Arthur pointed out, "And let's not forget about Igraine."

"That's something that's been bugging me." Phil said, trying to strike up a conversation and hopefully ease as much tension as he could, "Who goes by the name of Igraine?"

"Uh…" Fitz said, as he continued to type away, "Apparently Igraine is the name of King Arthur's mother. In legends, of course. In some legends she's also referred to as King Arthur's sister, Morgana Le Fay. Basically your stereotypical evil sorceress as legends claim."

"Well that definitely sounds like Igraine's style, though." Arthur pointed out, "Though it'll be hard to track her down if we get through all of this. According to the Captain, it looks like S.H.I.E.L.D.'s gotta go now too."

"Woah!" Tyler said, "What do you mean?"

"We've been infiltrated." Faye said, "As much as I'd hate to admit it, we failed as an organization. HYDRA got control of us for years. Trust me, Tyler. They're going to need someone to pin the blame on after all of this regardless of what happens."

Everyone was quiet, so Phil went to reload his weapon in a corner. Bruce looked at Sabrina regrettably.

"Guess we weren't working for the good guys after all." Sabrina said, looking at the ground.

"Sabrina…" Bruce sighed, "No matter what, we'll always be fighting for what we know is right and good. I promise you that."

Sabrina smiled weakly at him, and the two hugged closely.

"We'll get through this." Bruce promised, "I'll make sure of it."

With that, Coulson came back to join them.

"There!" May said, pointing to a monitor, "Agent Hand. She's right outside the East Wing Situation Room."

"This is definitely a situation." Garrett said.

"Simmons is still there." Fitz pointed out, "We don't move until we find Simmons."

"I'll say it again." Garrett told them, "Best bet to save her - use the ventilation system to get above the sit room. Drop down using Fitz's sweet, little mouse hole, and put two bullets through Victoria Hand's heart."

"Yeah, it's an option, sir." Fitz added.

"I'd have to agree." Tyler said, "And quite frankly with the way Victoria's been toying us until now, I'd love nothing more than to slit her throat and watch her collapse on the ground."

"Uh…I'm sorry?" Katie asked.

Everyone looked at her surprised.

"Tyler," She said, "The last time we tried that, we ended up killing both the wrong targets. Hell, you shot the wrong person because of it."

"She's right." Phil said, "We're technically operating on assumptions. We need to be more clear as to who our enemies are this time."

"Phil," Garrett said, confused, "Wake up. This is a battle for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s soul, and we're on the front lines. History will remember us this day."

"That's right." Phil said, "It's for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s soul. And murder without consideration is a sure..."

"Consideration?!" Garrett asked, "Consider this. She had one of my men killed with a bomb rigged to his gas pedal. The other two were floating in the hotel pool, and they weren't doing the backstroke."

He looked at Arthur.

"What about your team, Williams? Your old friends turned against you. Your own mother's body kidnapped. This Igraine Person might as well be connected to the Clairvoyant. We can take her out then raid her stuff for anything to catch Igraine."

"She might not have the things we need to find Igraine if she is behind this." Arthur said.

"We can just as easily ice her." May assured.

"You don't put someone like her on ice." Garrett told them, "She had Skye shot in the stomach - in the stomach - because she was curious. Mike Peterson - burned alive and turned into some kind of freak. She tortured you, using the same machine she used to brainwash that bitch in the flower dress. And right now, she's probably doing the same to Agent Simmons. Oh, I've considered it, my friend. Not to mention aiding this Igraine and getting people like the new CEO's of HAMMER involved."

"Wait a second…" Arthur said, realizing something, "I never told you about the HAMMER case involvement."

Garrett raised an eyebrow.

"You must've." He said.

"I didn't." Arthur said, "I had the info about their further involvement with Igraine hidden from even S.H.I.E.L.D. itself."

"You didn't hear the part about Raina." Coulson added, "I never said that Raina was inside the machine. I never told that to anybody."

Suddenly, the pieces in the two team leaders heads clicked together.

"It was you." Arthur said.

Garrett looked surprised, but tried to laugh.

"Agent Williams." He assured, "I know things have gone to hell recently, but…"

He saw he was not winning him over.

"Phil?" He asked, seriously.

Phil wasn't buying him either.

"Dammit." He swore, looking at the ground.

At that moment, more S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents arrived, holding guns at the two teams.

"FREEZE!" One of them yelled.

"Easy, fellas." Garrett said, coolly.

"Take Agent Garrett into custody!" Coulson warned, "He's the murderer they call 'The Clairvoyant!' He's a traitor!"

"Gentlemen." Garrett told the new arrivals, "I know Agent Sitwell was in charge of filling your ranks. So at least a few of you know what to do in this situation."

Coulson and Arthur looked at Garrett confused.

"Any time boys." He assured.

With that, four of the agents shot the rest of the other gun-wielding agents dead.

Everyone looked at Garrett shocked, as he gave a smug smile.

"Hail Hydra." He shrugged.

"HAIL HYDRA!" The other agents declared.

…

_**Soon…**_

Arthur felt completely defeated. How could he have missed that Garrett was the Clairvoyant the whole time?! He looked at Katie who gave him a look that tried to tell him it wasn't his fault.

Arthur appreciated the look but it wasn't going to do them any good when their team and Coulson were lined up to be shot by Garrett. In the traitor's own words, he abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D., because he 'felt the wind changing direction and swung his sail.'

Garrett was trying to appease to Coulson's team, but to no avail. So he moved onto Arthur's team.

"And now here are all of you." He said, "I respect Coulson's team. I do. Me and Phil go way back. But you lot have an interesting history that I need to sort out."

He looked at Faye.

"First there's you." He said, "Agent Carter. Not to be confused with the old withering crone who's probably going to die soon when she hears how Captain America was killed and the organization she helped found was corrupted shortly after its formation…"

Faye shot him a glare.

"You know, I was actually with Faye when she got the call." Garret laughed, "When she accepted, Jessie over here, thought that Faye was one of our moles."

The HYDRA Agents laughed, as he turned his attention back to Faye.

"Though as good as you are, Faye, I'll pass on you." He assured.

"Good." Faye replied, "Because I'll die before serving HYDRA."

"You might not've been paying attention when I told Phil," Garrett told her, "But you've been working for HYDRA this whole time, sweetie."

With that, he head butted her in the head, breaking her nose. Faye fell to the ground, pushing herself back up as her nose bled.

"Besides." Garrett added, moving over to Jessica, "With the way things are now in your life. You probably don't have a family to go back to."

He set his sights on Jessica next.

"And then there's Jessica." He told her, "Toughest female agent in the team. Piloting also pretty well which makes her an ideal replacement for May."

Jessica shot him a glare.

"Not so talkative." Garrett pointed out, "Oh, well."

He moved over to Tyler.

"Tyler Boateng." He said, "You aren't even on Arthur's team, but you've done quite a number of questionable things yourself."

Tyler looked at him sternly.

"I seem to be getting a lot of the silent treatment now." He said, "So let's go over those who have a lot of things they like to discuss."

He looked at Bruce and Sabrina.

"You can have Fitz's position if you kids want." He said, "But I assure you that it'll be fun. You'd like that, right."

"Igraine was working with HYDRA." Sabrina said, sadly, "She murdered my brother a second time."

She looked up at Garrett and everyone could see she was crying.

"And I hope you die soon as well." She added, "Because there's no chance in hell I will join HYDRA. Same for Bruce."

"All right." He said, "Then that brings us to our last two people. Scratch that. One because Katie Sheila here has some deluded fantasies of what Spy Organizations are like. Explosions. Hot Celeberties. That sort of cra-."

With that, Katie spat in Garrett's eye.

He wiped the saliva off, and punched Katie in the chest. She groaned in pain, having had all the wind knocked out of her.

"That'll teach ya." He smirked, as Katie tried to get back up.

He came across to Arthur.

"You're going to say that you'll never join HYDRA, I assume." Garrett smirked.

"Damn right I won't join them." He said.

"Well," Garrett chuckled, "Tough shit, kid. Because HYDRA's got a surprise in store for you and either way, you'll be coming with us very soon. I have someone who's been looking forward to meeting you."

"Igraine." Arthur said, "So you two were working together."

"That we have." Garrett said, with his demented smile, "I assure you, when you meet her in person, your mind will be blown."

"Then why not tell me why she's been so interested in me?" Arthur asked.

Suddenly, before anything else could be done, there was a small rumble as the lights went out.

Instantly, the lights went off and reverted to the backup lights which bathed the room in a yellow glow. Phil took this opportunity to tackle Garrett while May handled one of the other HYDRA Agents. Bruce and Sabrina, not that good at fighting, took Fitz's arms and helped him into a secluded area where they would be hidden. Tyler knelt down next to them, reloading his gun.

"First bastard who tries to take you out I'll have killed before they even touch the trigger." He assured.

Meanwhile, Faye was handling a HYDRA Agent who was a bit taller than her. She threw a roundhouse kick towards the agent's chest, but he grabbed her leg and threw it upwards, flipping Faye over. However, she was not out and spun her leg around, knocking the agent on his ass.

Unfortunately, Jessica was not about to help anytime soon as she suddenly felt that strange feeling again.

_Dammit!_ She swore, _Not now! Cut me some slack!_

As May fought the other HYDRA Agent, she looked over her shoulder to see Jessica and realized what was happening.

"Jessica!" She called, blocking another punch, "Remember what I told you! Find a focus of peace."

Jessica nodded and concentrated. Thankfully, the feeling went away and she saw Faye had knelt over the HYDRA Agent and was smashing his face in. However, he pulled out a sort-of stun baton and hit Faye with it, sending her flying into the monitors and crashing onto the keyboard and then down onto the ground. Noticing Faye's helplessness, Jessica slid forward, keeping her chained cuffs out and praying she had timed this perfectly.

Fortunately, the plan worked and the HYDRA Agent ended up tripping on her cuffs and falling to the ground. Faye realized this and got back up, racing over to the guy before leaping into the air and delivering a hard elbow blow to the guy's chest, knocking the wind out of him. Two well-synched punches to his face a second later, and he was out.

Jessica looked at Faye, giving a thumbs up sign, but Faye looked at her seriously confirming Jessica's worst fears that after this, she had a long way to go.

Lastly, Arthur and Katie were trying to fight the last HYDRA Agent. Arthur threw a right hook, but the guy blocked it. However, Katie took advantage of this opportunity and promptly kicked the guy right between the legs in a very sensitive area of his. The Guy let his guard down and screamed in pain, giving Arthur the opening to do a Chuck Norris-like kick to the guy's mouth, knocking him down.

"He wasn't going to have grandkids anyway." Katie joked.

Everyone looked and confirmed there was one more HYDRA Agent left, Garrett. He was currently kneeling over Coulson, attempting to bring a knife down into his face, as Phil tried to hold the weapon in place as best he could.

Arthur and his team prepared to move to help, but Fitz then came out of the shadows with a device.

"Coulson!" He declared, tossing it to Phil.

Arthur suddenly realized what it was and dropped down to the floor. Everyone else followed suit as Phil Activated the device. Instantly, a blue light shot out which knocked Garrett away and to the ground.

Everyone got back up and sighed with relief. They had won.

However, there was no time for celebration as more S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, including Victoria Hand, entered.

"HANDS IN THE AIR!" One of them yelled.

However, as they did so, Jemma Simmons entered the room and ran up to Fitz, giving him a big hug. Triplett soon joined the soldiers and looked at what had happened.

Coulson turned to Hand.

"I'm not HYDRA." He assured.

"None of us that are standing are." Arthur added, "Including that piece of lowlife trash."

He glared at Garrett as he said that last part.

"We heard. We heard everything." Hand told them, with a nod.

"Who is?" Phil asked, "How deep does it go?"

Hand just gave him and Arthur a sad look telling them that the next few years would probably be pretty rough on them.

…

_**Later…**_

Arthur, Coulson, and Hand watched the monitors screens in the main control room. Images from different news stations flooded the screen talking about what had happened over at Washington DC. Captain America had been successful at stopping Project: Insight, and had taken down the helicarriers before they could launch their attack. Right now, all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files had been leaked by The Black Widow herself, meaning that the organization was now compromised and the politicians in Washington were already talking about plans to disband the organization.

"What a day." Arthur groaned.

Suddenly, Katie walked in with Garrett who was handcuffed.

"Gave him a good slug in the gut for you, Arthur." She smiled, "Anything you want to say before he leaves?"

Arthur looked him in the eye.

"I'd ask who Igraine really is." Arthur admitted, "Or where I can find her. But I have the feeling he's going to be really cryptic."

"Not if you say 'please.'" Garrett said, sarcastically.

"Funny until the end." Hand replied, "So Agent Sheila. Did you find anything else from him worth of importance?"

"Nothing." Katie answered, "Um…is it all right to use the term 'agents' since we're pretty much being shut-down?"

"You'll be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. no matter what." Phil assured, "The question is what do we do now without any government funding."

"I'm taking Garrett to the Fridge." Hand said, "I'll be sure to give him the darkest and smallest room I can find. Tyler's going with me as well."

"Hand. Coulson." Ward replied, entering the room, "I'd like to go as well. If you don't mind, sir."

The three looked at him seriously.

"He was my SO." Ward told them, "I feel I should've known. It was my duty to…"

"No one knew." Coulson assured, "I didn't know. That's how he beat us. By being a friend."

"I spent years with that bastard." Ward told them, looking over at John, "Looked up to him."

He looked back at the others seriously.

"I want to see him suffer." He admitted.

Hand nodded.

"Don't mind the company." Victoria assured him, "Besides, I can always use men with the skills of both you and Agent Boateng."

She turned to Coulson and Arthur.

"The rest of you pick up the rest of the pieces at the Hub if you can." She ordered, "Oh, and take these."

She handed them both some old-school S.H.I.E.L.D. communications device.

"We might be the only high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents left." Hand assured.

"Thank you, Victoria." Arthur said.

With that, she left with Ward dragging Garrett away leaving the others to stare at the screen displaying the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.

…

_**Soon…**_

Jessica sat in the Spec-Ops Plane Interrogation Room, still handcuffed.

She was looking at the table in front of her without any idea of what to do next, when the door opened and Arthur entered.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s no more." He said, walking up to her.

Jessica looked down as Arthur took out a key.

"At least S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists officially." He corrected, "Coulson and I are putting anything we think is dangerous onboard our planes and then getting the hell out of dodge before the government comes down to arrest us."

He then uncuffed her hands with the key.

"Be thankful that I'm still willing to give you one last chance." Arthur added, "But because the future of S.H.I.E.L.D. is unclear with Fury's death, I'm taking full control of the team and stripping your rank down to a Level 3 Agent. Maybe you'll be more honest and one day I'll let you have your full rank back."

Jessica nodded sadly.

"Go help the others." He said, "And let me warn you now, Jessica; try to pull anything and I will murder you and throw your body away somewhere where nobody will find it."

Jessica got up and nodded.

"Dismissed." Arthur spat.

Jessica felt her whole world had ended now. Director Fury was dead. S.H.I.E.L.D. was no more. And worst of all, the part that still was active, her teammates who had stuck with her through her best and worst times, even going as far as to save her from death, no longer trusted her.

….

_**Meanwhile,**_

_**Victoria Hand's Plane, En Route to The Fridge…**_

Ward sat in a seat to the left of where Tyler was sitting. To Ward's right was Garrett himself, who remained silent. Just then, an agent came out and looked at her.

"Course is locked, Ma'am." He told her.

"Good." Victoria noted.

She looked over at Garrett.

"He's not telling stories now, is he?" She asked seriously.

The three sitting on the same side of the plane just remained quiet.

"You know what I'm thinking, Agent Garrett?" Victoria asked, "I'm thinking the icebox or the fridge is a little too comfortable for you. Maybe we should put you a little deeper underground."

Garrett just shot her a nasty look.

Seeing as how she was really beginning to get under his skin, she turned to Ward.

"What do you think, Agent Ward?" Hand asked, "You shot the wrong clairvoyant before. Care to shoot the right one?"

Ward looked at her seriously and then back at Garrett. Sighing, he got back up and loaded his gun. After staring a bit at his SO, Ward pointed his gun…

And instead shot the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents in front of him. Tyler got up and quickly got his knife near Ward's throat. Hand stood there horrified but was ready to heave a sigh of relief that Boateng had gotten the best of this traitor…

But her breath never exited her mouth as Boateng then drew his knife back, throwing it into Hand's own throat. She gasped as she started losing oxygen. Tyler smiled at Ward who gave him a nod of approval back. The two stared back at John as well who nodded with approval.

Ward went to get Garrett out as Boateng took hold of his knife still lodged into Victoria's body and then quickly sliced it right so that blood now rushed out of her neck. Victoria looked at Tyler with pleading eyes.

"How the mighty have fallen." He smirked, "You know, Victoria. When I got put in that boring-as-hell desk job when Jessica left, I promised myself one day I would take pleasure in watching you die."

Victoria closed her eyes and put her head down.

"What's this?" John asked surprised, "Vicky…are you…are you praying right now?! Wow! Sorry, Vick. But no god is going to save you now."

He nodded at Tyler who nodded back at him.

Focusing on Hand, he took his knife out as tears fell from Victoria's eyes, mixing with the blood on the ground. Raising his knife up high, he uttered the two immortal words.

"Hail Hydra."

With that, he brought the knife down, slicing Victoria's head off as her body slumped down to the ground dead.

"Nice job, you two." Garrett laughed, "Now Ward and I need you to be our getaway man with this plane once we're through. Oh, and by the way, Igraine says hi."

John went to work on the controls as Ward turned to Tyler.

"So who is Igraine?" He asked.

"Can't tell you just yet." He assured.

…

_**A Few Years Back…**_

Tyler was standing outside a lone room with a HYDRA Agent waiting outside.

"Welcome to HYDRA, Tyler Boateng…" A HYDRA Agent said, "You are lucky to be selected by Igraine to become her personal right-hand man. It's time you meet her."

Tyler nodded and went inside. He was surprised when he saw who she really was. The woman was sitting at a desk, with dozens of notes all scrambled around there.

Looking up, she saw her new arrival.

"Ah." She smiled, "You must be Tyler Boateng. Please. Have a seat."

Tyler nodded and took a seat at the desk in front of hers.

"I hope you realize the importance of your new position." She said.

"I do, Ma'am." He assured her.

"Good." She said, "You know, I've gone over you file, Agent Boateng, and I can see we're alike in many ways."

She folded her hands and looked at him.

"We've both been wronged by the world and wish to change it." She said, "You had a much stricter childhood than mine, though. Your father, Derek Boateng, was a very religious man. He died when you were 12 after getting his hands on some S.H.I.E.L.D. Intel."

"He didn't know what it was." Tyler said, angrily.

"I know." Igraine said, walking over and putting her hand on his shoulder, "Nobody should have that happen to you. Explains why your mother eventually sent you to a psychiatrist after you got all moody and ended up stabbing a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent to death after he had been tracking you. Fortunately we got to you first and for good reason."

She leaned on her desk, folding her arms as she stared at him.

"So why do you wish to work for HYDRA, Tyler Boateng?" She asked.

"Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. destroyed my world." Tyler replied, looking at her seriously, "Now I want to destroy theirs."

She grinned.

"Just the response I wanted to hear." She said, happily, "I'm glad to have you on my team. You will make a fine right-hand man indeed."

She went back behind her desk, and sat down again.

"So let's talk what my plan is." She said, "I think it's fair that if you're going to be working for me, that you understand what it is we'll be planning."

"Couldn't agree more." Tyler smiled.

"Now," She explained, "There are three plans we have. Alexander Peirce has a plan involving a helicarrier that can predict any move you make, John Garrett's got some plan involving cybernetics, and then there's my plan."

She patted her notes on the table.

"My plan is a bit more…mad, but it is possible to achieve." Igraine elaborated, "You see, if you want to hurt Nick Fury, you have to hurt the world. You have to hurt it until blood is spilled across this country and into others as well."

She looked Tyler in the eyes.

"So tell me;" She asked, "Are you ready to change the world and make it a better one?"

Tyler nodded grinning.

"With pleasure, ma'am." He replied.

…

**So there you go, everyone! Not only has Ward been ousted as the Traitor, but now Tyler has been shown to be a traitor as well! So with that, next chapter we join our Agents as they attempt to regroup, Arthur attempts to right some of the wrongs from his older days, and the identity of Igraine. WILL. BE. REVEALED. For real this time! Anyways, with that said, I know some of the OC Writers who gave their characters to be used in my fanfic don't have profiles and are thus unable to contact me via a fanfic PM, so I will need you guys to leave me something for help in the next chapter within your reviews. Next chapter will see the team taking the Lie-Detector Test seen from **_**The Only Light in the Darkness**_**, so I will need you guys to tell me how your characters would respond to the questions. In case you don't remember, here's a little preview for Arthur and Katie:**

"What's your name?" Koening asked

"Agent Katie Sheila." Katie responded.

"Where is your family?"

Katie sighed before answering.

"I don't know." Katie answered, honestly, "Been on my own my entire life. I don't even know if they're alive or dead."

Eric nodded and looked over the computer screen in front of him. Katie was honest so far.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" He questioned.

"An Egg makes a good omelet. A rock makes for a good weapon to hit with." Katie said, without missing a beat.

"Good. You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

Katie thought for a few minutes.

"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Eric assured.

"Okay." Katie said, "In the box is a jetpack complete with stinger missiles, gatling guns, and one of those tiny rockets that when it hits and object just explodes with a huge boom to make Michael Bay retire from directing."

Koening looked at her surprised. The readings said she was fine.

"That's a pretty creative imagination you got there." He complemented.

"I've always wanted to use one of those things." Katie said.

"Couldn't see why you wouldn't want to use one of those." Eric said, "All right. Moving on… S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Katie pressed her head back against her chair.

"I'm here for Arthur." She answered, honestly, "He's been one of the few people who actually cared about me and believed I could be a part of something more than I already was. I have nowhere else to go."

Eric nodded. Everything checked out perfectly.

"Katie Sheila." He said, "You are checked out perfectly."

With that, he released her and shook her hand.

"Anyways," He said, "I do hope that when working with us, you get a chance to use a jetpack of some kind."

….

"What's your name?" Koening asked

"Agent Arthur Williams." Arthur responded.

"Where is your family?"

"My Dad died many years ago." Arthur answered, "My mother supposedly died before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., but it turns out they might've buried an android. Or something. I have no idea where she is."

Eric nodded and looked over the computer screen in front of him. Arthur was good so far.

"If you think Androids are freaky, you'll have to meet my twins sometime." Eric quipped, "Just don't let anyone else know. I want it to be a surprise for them."

Arthur nodded.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" Eric questioned.

"Really?" Arthur asked.

"Just answer the question."

Arthur sighed.

"Alright. An egg is an egg, and a rock is a rock." He shrugged.

"Good." Koening said, reading a clear 100% Honesty so far, "You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"Depends." Arthur said, "What's the island like? Is it inhabited? How advanced are the inhabitants…"

"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Eric assured.

"Alright…" Arthur sighed, thinking quickly, "First thing…Captain America's shield."

Eric raised an eyebrow.

"You believe someone would leave probably the only source of vibranium, and a treasured icon and weapon of Steve Rogers for you?"

"No." Arthur corrected, "I believe HE would leave it for me for all the good work I've tried to do for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Okay…" Eric said, "Moving on…S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Arthur leaned his head back.

"For as long as I remember, I wanted to do good in the world." He said, "I thought I could with S.H.I.E.L.D. The REAL S.H.I.E.L.D. not HYDRA's sick version of it. My loyalty is and always has been to S.H.I.E.L.D. should it ever be disbanded, I would follow any agent who was still good, and I would follow them into action even if it took me to hell and back."

"Okay. One last question." Eric asked.

"Shoot."

"What happens if those you are following who are good turn out to be HYDRA?"

"Then I trick them into doing one of their "hail HYDRA" salutes, and kick them in the stones. I grab the guy's gun, dodge bullets, and shoot for the legs which catches them off guard as they'd expect me to shoot for the chest. After they have been disabled, I shoot them in the chest and run off trying to find whoever else I can to work for without getting myself arrested by the government."

"That was…that was a very specific answer, Mr. Williams." Eric told him, "But it appears you are cleared. You're free to go."

….

**Anyways, leave your interviews in the reviews if you don't have a profile page to PM me with, and I'll get the next chapter written up. And trust me, when you see the next one, your jaws will hit the floor by the end. **


	14. Lead Us

**Hi everyone! Glad you're all reading this again. Well, this is it. The penultimate chapter to the AoS Fanfic: The Spec-Ops Team. I had originally planned to get this out before **_**Avengers: Age of Ultron **_**(which I thought was great for the most part except for a few minor nitpicks I had, but that can be overlooked), but things didn't turn out that way, so here we are. Anyways, there'll be a bit of a break as I prep the next chapter. I'm going to try and get it up next Wednesday, but if I can't I'll have it up in another week. As promised, I made this chapter longer, and it contains a lot more action (some of which might not be suitable for children,) revelations, promises, and at long last, The TRUE Identity of Igraine will be revealed! As such, this chapter is essentially covering a bunch of episodes at once. That being from Providence through Ragtag and ending within the first few moments of Beginning of the End, just from Arthur's team's perspective. Once again I'd like to take a moment to thank my fanfiction friends for their contribution of characters to be used in this story, and those who are reading it just for fun. I hope you all enjoy this special double-length chapter. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for fan-purposes ONLY, so PLEASE don't sue! **

….

_**The Hub…**_

Arthur walked ahead, passing by the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents who were picking up the pieces from the attack. He couldn't believe S.H.I.E.L.D. was over. It seemed life had gotten even more crazier for him and something in the back of his mind was telling him that things were only going downhill from here.

"Agent Williams."

Arthur turned to see Coulson walking towards him.

"How's your team doing?" He asked.

"Okay." Arthur answered, honestly, "We're just loading some more stuff and then we'll be on our way."

"Where are you headed?"

Arthur sighed.

"I really don't know." He admitted.

"I suggest you come with us." Phil told him, "Glenn Talbot is on his way here, and I think it's safe to assume it's not to help us rebuild."

"Okay." Arthur told him, "I'll inform my team."

….

_**Later,**_

_**Location Unknown…**_

Tyler opened the door to see Igraine leaning over a touch screen desk, placing her palm on there. She was showing some signs of pain, but was holding it in. Next to her, stood the Sasha and Justine Hammer.

Igraine looked up to see Tyler entering.

"Ah," She said, grinning to mask the pain, "Agent Boateng. Come in."

"So is that it?" Tyler asked, "The machine that's going to change everything."

"Indeed it is…" Igraine assured, "Just…agh….getting my biometric security implanted onto here. Already did my brainwaves earlier."

"Why not just use a switch or a button?" Tyler asked.

"Because…" She told him, "You can bet Arthur is going to come looking for us eventually. Even with S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanded. Speaking of which, how did your visit to The Fridge alongside Ward and Garrett go?"

"Complete success." Tyler smiled, "HYDRA has now obtained almost every powerful artifact that S.H.I.E.L.D. has collected over the years."

"And what of Arthur's Team?" Igraine asked.

Tyler smiled.

"They all suspect I'm a friend now." He told her, "Garrett gave me an order to appear at Providence later. Ward will cover saying he had to leave me behind to take down a bunch of HYDRA Agents under my orders and I'll show up almost broken to get in and begin the penultimate part of our plan."

"Good." Igraine noted, as the computer finished scanning her palm and she took it off.

She turned to the two Hammer CEOs.

"So you two will be waiting with a bug for Tyler to purposely activate." Igraine said, "You will read a pre-given script so Arthur will be lured to the last part of our testing."

"And you're sure this is going to work?" Justine asked.

"It will." Igraine said, looking at a small laptop, "The preliminary test was a success. The animal test subjects reacted exactly as we hoped the experiment would allow them to act like. We just need to see how a large amount of people will react to it. Plus, even if Arthur gets out of the crossfire alive, he'll at least realize that no matter what, he can't stop us at all."

"Are you certain?" Tyler asked.

"Completely." Igraine assured.

"I still can't get over this place, though, ma'am." Sasha admitted, looking at the entire room, "When did you say you started building this place?"

"The same day I realized that nobody was going to do anything to save the planet from itself." Igraine admitted, "Well, nobody except HYDRA. When they offered me the chance to make my plan a reality, I wasted no time in building this fortress. This is where the new world will be born."

"Speaking of which," Justine asked, "How are all the other people you've been keeping?"

"As to be expected." Igraine sighed, "Only one or two changed their minds and have decided to join our cause, but I'm afraid the rest of them are still quite resilient. Fortunately, we'll have HYDRA brainwash them after the deed is done and they'll see things our way. Speaking of which, I'd better check on the Prince's son."

"Which Prince was that?" Sasha asked.

"Wales." Tyler replied, "His parents were more than happy to agree to Igraine's terms but their son couldn't see things our way. We have him being held down below along with a number of other people who refused to comply with our goals. On the bright side, the major players that Igraine wanted were a complete success."

"A new world order run by a number of hand-selected people capable for the job." Justine noted, "Makes you wonder why someone didn't think of this sooner."

"There's an easy answer to that." Igraine pointed out, "S.H.I.E.L.D. They always stood in the way of everybody's plans. But fortunately now it's been shattered. Those who think they can pick up the pieces will soon realize that there is no hope for saving the world. We will do that ourselves while John Garrett supplies us with the necessary soldiers to defend our new world. This is only possible because of one thing; destiny."

…

_**Meanwhile, The Spec-Ops Plane…**_

Arthur watched over Jessica as she continued to follow Coulson's plane. He and the other agents had decided that they would each take a turn every hour and watch over Jessica to make sure she didn't try and pull a fastball on them. Jessica's faith in her teammates was quickly diminishing and she doubted that she would ever be trusted again.

Fortunately, they had managed to move a good amount of the dangerous equipment from The Hub onto their plane. Arthur and Coulson realized there was a number of things that the United States Government shouldn't be able to get their hands on, and so they managed to pick up a good amount of weapons and gadgets and store them here before wiping any traces of where they and Phil were headed and disappearing like ghosts. Of course, they couldn't take everything with them, but they felt a little bit better knowing that they had the stuff that they knew the US Government wouldn't be all that careful with.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Arthur said.

The door opened and Faye entered.

"Watch over her." Arthur told Faye, "I'm gonna see how everyone else is holding up."

With that, he left and Faye took Arthur's spot. Jessica sighed and glanced at Faye apologetically. Faye was remaining stoic and mature as always. Nonetheless, Jessica tried to do her best to apologize.

"I'm sorry, okay?" She asked.

Faye did not respond.

"Faye…" Jessica pleaded.

"Shut up." Faye told her, "Just shut up. Arthur was right. You betrayed everyone's trust, Jessica."

She looked at her.

"You know," Faye told her, "I was actually beginning to feel more comfortable around you, Jessica. You were like the big sister I never knew. And then you stabbed us in the back. You have a lot more to answer for now."

Jessica remained silent and kept flying the plane, crying to herself mentally.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

Arthur walked into the plane's main living quarters to find Katie sitting on a lone couch, looking over her ID.

Arthur sat next to her as she took notice of him.

"I guess since we're fugitives it means that we'll have to get rid of these." She explained.

Arthur shook his head.

"Phil might want to go through with it, but I wouldn't ask you of that." Arthur told her.

She looked at him.

"We're still agents." Arthur assured, "Not of HYDRA. Not of nothing. We're still S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll figure something out."

Katie nodded in agreement.

"Let me show you something else." Arthur explained.

He got up and led her to his office. Sitting behind his desk, he reached into a cabinet and pulled out a number of files.

"All of my old missions." He explained, "You asked me for a little bit about my backstory. Here it is."

Katie looked at them and pulled a file open revealing a series of documents and some photos of a prom murder.

"That was my very first field assignment ever." Arthur explained, "Under supervision of course. I helped uncover an incestuous affair between a rich billionaire daughter and a shopkeeper. Her half-sister was murdered trying to pose as her, and I had the shopkeeper arrested for those charges and wanting to swindle the rich daughter's family by holding her hostage."

Katie nodded and pulled up another file opening it up to reveal photographs of a tropical resort island.

"That one was the first time I ever had to kill a group of people." Arthur explained, "I was sent in with my then-SO to the Bahamas in order to prevent a thermo-nuclear device from going off on Andros Islands."

"Nice." Katie approved.

"That was also when I got stabbed." Arthur pointed out.

"What did you do?" Katie asked.

"I proceeded to bite one of the guy's fingers off." Arthur explained, "True story."

Katie laughed and continued to look through more files. There was one of when Arthur had foiled an undercover spy ring in Tokyo which would've resulted in the poisoning of the Ogochi Reservoir; one in which he had prevented a new Cold War from breaking out in Moscow; one in which he had saved the life of the President of the United States…the list and achievements kept going on and on to the point where Katie almost considered that he might be making this all up just to make her feel better.

"The honest truth is, Katie," Arthur explained to her as she finished looking over the last file, "None of these events were publically made. Instead we had that usual garbage that the media prints from what celebrity is doing who, and the usual depressing crap that takes away any hope from the world recovering."

"But public service is the best way to live." Katie pointed out, "Even if it is in secret."

Arthur raised his eyebrows in amazement at her.

"That was…very insightful, Katie." He pointed out, "Where did you get that line from?"

"From you." Katie smiled.

Arthur smiled back at her.

"You really have come such a long way from where you were when we first met." Arthur told her, "You were just a kid off the streets and yet you're still standing by with us. Even after everything that's happened recently."

"I got no other plans." Katie told him with a soft smile.

Arthur was about to say something when his desk phone communications rang. Pulling up the caller, he saw it was from Phil.

"Agent Williams." Phil stated, "We have a heading."

"Really?" Arthur asked, "Where are we going? And how did you find it?"

"A little message on my ID Badge." Coulson replied, "We believe it's from Director Fury. Apparently it's leading us to a series of coordinates somewhere in Canada."

"Do you think it could be a trap?" Arthur suggested.

"I don't know." Coulson replied, "But we need to at least try."

"Understood, Phil." Arthur replied, "Just send us your direction and we'll follow you there."

…

_**Later, Canada,**_

_**49 27 41 – 80 3 40,**_

_**The Location given to Coulson's Team by Director Fury…**_

Arthur and his team followed Coulson and his unit down the long snowy path. They had parked a good mile away for two important reasons. One was because they didn't want to deliberately give their location away on the off-chance that someone in the government had managed to track their coordinates, and two was because the location itself was too small for both planes to fit at the same time. So here both teams were following Coulson's theory, bundled up in the warmest clothes they could find.

Finally, they reached the clearing in the trees where the coordinates had listed, only to find nothing but trees and snow.

Coulson looked around desperately, trying to find some sign of anything that could be proven useful to them.

"It's gotta be here somewhere." Phil said, hopefully.

Arthur soon joined in with the search.

"How long…" Skye asked, "Before we should think about heading back?"

"We're not going back." Phil assured.

"Not until we find whatever Fury has waiting for us."

"What about the satellite?" Triplett asked.

"Wait?!" Arthur asked, "What satellite?!"

"It doesn't matter." Phil assured, "The Bus used all it's remaining fuel just to get us here."

"WHAT?!" Katie asked.

"Did you know this before flying us out into the middle of nowhere?!" Simmons questioned.

"It was the right play." Coulson assured, "Fury sent us these coordinates for a reason."

"And what reason is that?" May questioned.

"I don't know, May!" Phil snapped at her, "I don't know! There's gotta be something here!"

He showed his ID Badge.

"This means something!" He insisted, "This has to mean something! The world needs us! HYDRA is out there! We cannot let them win! We cannot let them define us!"

He looked at the people before him.

"Do you understand that?!" He asked, "We are not agents of nothing! We are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that still carries weight! It has to carry weight after everything we've been through, that carries weight!"

He looked at his team and Arthur's and then back at his ID regrettably.

After a few seconds, Arthur stepped up.

"Coulson…" He said, "I understand. I do."

Coulson looked at him.

"We're outnumbered, we've got very little resources, and very little to go on. But you're right." He explained, "We can't let HYDRA succeed. But if we're going to do this, we need to do it the way you taught the Avengers how to do it. As a team. Don't let HYDRA make us point guns at each other now. We need to keep as many cool heads as possible. Wait until later to snap."

Coulson looked at him before nodding.

"You're right." He said, "I'm sorry."

He looked at everyone else.

"I really am sorry." He assured, "It's just been a couple of stranious last few weeks. I just…"

Arthur could tell Coulson was almost breaking at this point. Without warning, he threw his badge which contained the coordinates into the air. Before anyone could react, a small turret popped up from behind a bush and fired at the flying item, blowing it to pieces.

"GET DOWN!" Arthur yelled, "FIND COVER!"

Everybody didn't argue, and imminently hid behind the best possible location for cover.

"Well it seems like we found them!" Fitz called out.

"I think that's a pretty safe bet!" Faye replied.

Coulson and Arthur just continued to stare at the turret.

"Nobody move!" May warned.

"I really don't think that's going to be a problem!" Jemma assured.

They remained quiet as the turret scanned for them.

"This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. Facility." Phil declared, quietly.

"Shoot first, ask question later?" Triplett asked, "Doesn't sound like S.H.I.E.L.D. to me."

"It's not HYDRA." Phil pointed out, with certainty, "This is Fury reaching out."

"Or at the very least someone who is still with the good S.H.I.E.L.D." Arthur theorized.

"But there's no way to know that for sure." May noted.

"There's one way." Phil said, getting up.

"Phil!" May warned, "Don't!"

Katie looked to see Arthur was moving from his hiding place. She grabbed his arm, but before she could ask, Arthur gave her an assuring look to let her know it'd be all right. Despite her reservations, Katie let go and prayed that Arthur and Phil knew what the hell they were doing. The two stood in front of the turret as it locked onto them.

"Identify yourself." A mechanical voice declared.

"I'm Phil Coulson." Phil introduced, "This is Arthur Williams. We're Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"We're two S.H.I.E.L.D. Team Leaders," Arthur explained, "Our teams followed some coordinates here that were given to Agent Coulson by who we presume to be Director Fury, or at least someone he trusted."

They remained silent before the turret started to retract.

"Welcome, Agent Coulson." The voice said, "Welcome, Agent Williams. We've been expecting you."

There was a groaning noise and the two team heads turned to see a nearby rock formation open up revealing a secret entrance.

The two heads nodded to their team and motioned for them to head on over. They entered through the hole in the wall and began walking down a long corridor. It seemed like a small eternity with so many questions still unanswered before Skye finally spoke.

"So what is this place?" She asked.

"One of Fury's secret bases." A new voice responded.

Everyone looked forward to see a short hefty man wearing a fine suit and tie with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard around his neck walking up to them.

"Uh…" He said, "I call it 'Providence.' Although technically it doesn't have a name, because technically it doesn't exist, being a secret base and all."

Everyone looked at him cautiously.

The man sighed and motioned for them to walk along.

"If everyone will follow me." He said.

Phil and Arthur looked at their teams before doing so. Eventually, the man brought them to a simple room with monitors, desks, tables, and other small things to make this an adequate secret base. It wasn't the Triskellion or the Hub, but Arthur figured if the other facilities were like this, they could manage living her and figuring out their next move.

"Pretty cool, huh?" The man asked, with a grin.

"I'm sorry." Phil apologized, "Who are you? Exactly?"

The man nodded, apologetically.

"Eric Koening, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." He introduced, "Level 6."

"Phil Coulson." Phil introduced.

"I know." Eric said, shaking Phil's hand enthusiastically, "It is an honor to meet you, Agent Coulson."

He then shook Arthur's hand.

"The same for you, Agent Williams." He said, "I'm also happy to hear that apparently you aren't that much of a workaholic as you were when you first joined."

"Uh…thanks, I guess?" Arthur replied, shaking Koening's hand.

"Let me just apologize for the incident that happened outside. The precision-remote system was designed to destroy any rapidly-moving material or object."

"It was my badge." Phil explained.

Eric nodded, understandingly.

"Okay…" He said, "That's going to be…tough to replace. But very soon you're going be issued your very own lanyard."

Eric showed his as a demonstration.

"Lanyards for others will be distributed on a case-by-case basis." Eric told them.

There was a silence as Katie looked around confused.

"Can we ask questions now?" She asked.

"Feel free." Eric said, encouragingly.

"Okay." Phil said, "What happened to Director Fury? Is he alive?"

Eric looked at the ground regrettably.

"Fury…" He said, trying to find the right words, "Didn't make it out of DC. It's been reported off."

He looked at the others who were trying not to believe that the great Nick Fury was dead.

"We're all shaken up." Eric assured, "Especially now that The Fridge has fallen."

Phil and Skye looked at Eric in amazement. Skye instantly went to call up Ward.

"Who is she calling?" Eric demanded.

"We had two men at the fridge." Phil explained.

Arthur nodded as Skye called for Ward.

"Can I speak to you two?" Eric asked Arthur and Phil.

The two nodded and left. Arthur and Phil letting their team know with a glance to keep an eye on May and Jessica. Eventually, the two leaders came to a small wooden room office.

"It's nice having company." Eric said, "But don't get me wrong. I mean this place is great."

"What's with the windows?" Phil asked, looking at the window in the room portraying a sunny beach that obviously should not be outside.

"Oh." Eric said, noticing what Phil was referring to, "That's supposed to make the isolation more bearable."

"You just wanted to make that for the ice pun, didn't you?" Arthur asked.

"You had any other ideas?" Eric asked, surprised.

"A few." Arthur said, "But I think you had something you wanted to mention to us?"

"Right." Eric said, "Sorry. My bad. Fury is not dead."

"What?!" Arthur and Phil asked simultaneously.

"Yeah." Eric said as if it were no big deal, "HYDRA thinks they killed him, but he managed to escape from DC."

"So you just lied to our teams." Arthur pointed out.

"Well I don't know any of them." Eric pointed out, "Those were Fury's direct orders. Only a select few people can know he's alive. Maria Hill, Cap, a couple of others, and now the two of you and me."

"Where's he now?" Phil asked.

"No one knows." Eric said, honestly, "Ever since he went dark no one's heard from him. His highest priority followed was the Eclipse Protocol. No one else can know."

"I'm not comfortable keeping secrets from my team." Phil told Eric.

"Nor am I." Arthur added, "I think we've both had enough secrets with our teams by this point that we don't want to eventually end up as hypocrites ourselves."

"Well," Eric replied, "They haven't been vetted. And if either of you talk, we're going to have a major problem."

"You threatening us?" Phil questioned.

"One-hundred-percent." Eric said, without a second doubt, "Fury's orders. Not big on the trust, is he?"

He looked at the two.

"So we're good?" He asked.

Arthur and Phil looked at each other and nodded.

"We're good." Phil assured.

"Great." Eric grinned, lightly punching Phil and Arthur in the arms, "I'm going to get you both set up with a lanyard. Maybe ask Agent May and Agent Smith to pull your planes in. I've got a parking space for them and everything."

Arthur and Phil just nodded.

With that, they left and walked back towards the meeting room. When they entered, they found the rest of their team waiting.

"Well?" Skye asked, hanging up, her phone.

Arthur looked at everyone as did Phil.

"He just wanted to let us know that we're free to stay here as long as we want and that we should bring the planes in."

"You serious?" Jessica asked.

"He said he had a parking spot." Phil pointed out.

"Alright." May said, as she left followed by Jessica, Faye, and Katie.

Phil and Arthur then moved over to Skye.

"So how is Mr. Ward?" Arthur asked.

"Not well." Skye admitted, "Apparently HYDRA managed to strike at The Fridge by surprise. Apparently a lot of people have gotten away and some of them took dangerous stuff."

"Perfect." Arthur said, sarcastically, "And Tyler Boateng?"

"Ward's in a plane heading to our direction right now." Skye explained, "He said he and Tyler were getting overwhelmed and Tyler decided to buy Ward time to get away. He says that he think Tyler can handle it and he's probably not going to die."

"Good." Phil said, "Because if some people have broken free from The Fridge, we're going to need everyone here so we can plan our next move as soon as possible. Let's just hope Agent Boateng will be able to join us soon."

…

_**Meanwhile, Location Unknown…**_

"I understand." Igraine said, into her phone, "That will be the perfect foil for Arthur's team as a distraction while we work on prepping things for the penultimate stage of our operation. Will do. Goodbye."

She hung up and looked at Tyler.

"Good news." She said, "You're going back to Arthur's team to let them know you escaped from The Fridge by a miracle."

She looked at him seriously.

"Ward's almost there, so you'll leave later to help sell the deception. You're going to tell them that Chester Rowland escaped from prison."

"So we're feeding Arthur the truth." Tyler smiled, "I like it."

"Yes." Igraine said, "So he'll go there regardless of what people tell him, and by the time he learns of our plans, we'll be ready to tell him the final bait for the second stage of our plans."

She looked at him seriously.

"You also have to remember to mention bits of the wedding to him, then after he's had enough time to take care of the problem, you tell him where it is specifically and feed him the information the Hammers will give him."

Tyler nodded.

"Understood." He said.

"Except now you have to look the part." She said, "You ready to begin?"

"Yes." Tyler said.

With that, Igraine began punching him repeatedly. Tyler endured the pain and never once fell. It was like he was a rock-em-sock-em robot that wouldn't go down. After a few minutes of punching, Igraine stepped back to see Tyler was bruised up enough to sell the story.

"Go get them, Tyler." She smiled.

…

_**Later, Providence…**_

Arthur was relieved when Tyler showed up okay after Ward delivered the bad news on The Fridge. Many of the super-powered nutcases had broken out, and Phil's team was quickly being tested to see if their loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. was true or not, so they could leave to take down one of these escaped prisoners.

According to Tyler, he had managed to help retake what was left of The Fridge, but it appeared that nobody was going to ever use it again, so it was best to keep those who remained locked up that way, and so Tyler suggested they fill the holes with liquid concrete similar to what the Russians had used on Chernobyl to ensure nobody would be touching any items or freeing anyone else.

On the plus side, Ward had told them that he caught Garrett managing to sneak away when Tyler was ready to sacrifice himself, and promptly put two bullets in Garrett's head. While it was good to know Garrett wouldn't be bothering anyone again, there was still another complication. Tyler had told them during the fight with the inmates, someone had managed to accidently shoot a cell door releasing someone Arthur wished he'd never have to see or face again.

"Dammit all to hell." Arthur swore as he looked at the file.

"I don't understand." Katie admitted, "Who the hell's Chester Rowland?"

"One of the first Super-Powered Individuals I ever had to face." Arthur explained, "Mr. Rowland was exposed to some kind of biological chemical which greatly changed his body. In our books, science experiments gone wrong are never a good thing unless your name happens to be Bruce Banner."

"So what changed with him exactly?" Tyler asked, as Sabrina tended to his wounds that he had sustained during the fight, "I looked at his file, but most of the information was redacted."

"Mr. Rowland apparently found that he could becoming a 'living shadow' if you will. In that he could turn his body into two dimensions and manipulate his movement via traveling through dark areas. Literally. He also managed to turn two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents into flat 2D versions of themselves. He apparently wrapped himself around them and created a weight so powerful that he somehow managed to flatten their entire bodies. Like something out of a sick cartoon show."

"How'd you catch him?" Katie asked.

"Truth is?" Arthur admitted, "I had help. And that help's probably who he's going after. Blair Praetor."

"Who?" Katie asked.

"Remember that person Arthur mentioned to you who he tried to date?" Faye asked.

Katie's eyes widened.

"No…" She gasped.

"Yeah." Arthur said, "So we have to go out and save her. Both as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents…and to apologize to her for that time I dated her."

He looked at Tyler.

"Anything else you can tell me?" He asked.

"There was one person who bit a cyanide capsule." He told Arthur, "But before he died, he said something about the wedding of some guy named Abel Fennhoff's and something called The Grand Vanity Cruise."

"Fennhoff…" Katie said, "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Because Fennhoff is the last name of a deadly agent who worked for the other greatest terrorist organization called Leviathan." Arthur explained, "Specifically, the guy was named Johann Fennhoff, and he tried destroying New York."

"How?" Katie asked.

"Don't know." Arthur admitted, "Most of the files were redacted by the one who stopped the attack. Peggy Carter."

"So who's this Abel guy?" Katie asked, "Distant relative?"

"Exactly." Arthur smiled, "But he's harmless. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been looking after the Fennhoff family for years, but it appears they gave up on Johann's twisted legacy after he was released following his time served sometime in the 60's."

"So you don't believe he's the one behind this?" Katie asked.

"No." Arthur said, "But I think he and this cruise is somehow connected. He is getting married, but we need more info."

He looked at Tyler.

"Get any information you can about what's going on." Arthur stated, "I need to talk to Eric about heading out to stop Chester."

"Sir." Jessica said, running up, "Let me go with you…"

"You think I'm going to let you come along?!" Arthur asked, "After you lied to my face repeatedly?"

"Sir…" Jessica pleaded.

"No." Arthur declared, "You're staying here and that's final. After I tell Koening, I'm going to make sure we give you one of those tests he's giving Phil's team to make sure you aren't hiding anything else from us."

With that, he marched over to where the tests were being done to speak with Eric about leaving. As he did so, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing something. He knew it wasn't the luxury of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he felt there was something he wasn't noticing that was looking him dead in the eye.

As he approached the door and saw Ward leaving with a lanyard badge.

He suddenly thought of something that crossed his mind.

"Ward!" He called.

Ward stopped to look at him.

"Yeah?" Ward asked.

"Did you have anything to do with the breakout?" Arthur asked.

Ward looked at him confused.

"I mean, I know you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and all," Arthur assured, "but did you do something wrong when you were bringing Garrett in with Tyler? I wonder… Then again, it wouldn't be the first time you tried to avoid taking the blame for something."

"No." Ward said, sternly, "I didn't have anything to do with the breakout at The Fridge, except for the fact I was there when it happened. I don't need to do dirty work like you do. Speaking of which, good job uncovering Jessica's true agenda by the way, shows how much you care for the team."

"Oh, that's rich." Arthur said, sarcastically, "You know as well as I do we were dealing with a lot of shit on our plate when it hit the fan. Even if there wasn't anything going on at the time, Jessica was recovering from almost dying! Something I think you of all people should be able to understand, unless you're feelings for Skye are just about making her your eye candy."

"You know, Williams?" Grant asked him, "You might be some scary boogeyman for the other S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents to be afraid of from your previous years of hard by-the-books rules, but you know what you remind me of?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow before Ward answered.

"You remind me of a zit." Ward replied, "An ugly one at best with a big vein along your head there. See, that's where I think I'd put the bullet I you if you were HYDRA and speaking to me that way. But I think I'd have to stand back because I'm afraid of what would spill or squirt out of there when I shot it."

Arthur looked at Ward seriously.

"Agent Ward." Arthur asked, "How many people have you killed today?"

"About thirteen, give or take." Grant admitted, "Why?"

"Well, I only ask because nowadays, I've found a way to annihilate people without using guns, or weapons, or hand-to-hand combat. I know how to really maim a person. Psychologically speaking."

"Well come on then." Ward suggested, "Take a free shot at me. I'll punch you in the face so hard you'll be crapping out your teeth for the next few weeks."

Arthur wanted to take a shot at Ward and knew he could best him. But he knew Ward was trying to goad him. He wanted Arthur to attack. But Arthur didn't want to make this seem like he had accused him of nothing, so he decided he needed to send a clear message to Ward to not screw with him. His eye suddenly caught sight of a nearby camera recording the two of them. He turned back to Ward and smiled.

"Go right ahead. Take a shot at me." Arthur suggested, his face becoming much sterner, "I can see the report now. Agent Ward suspended for striking a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Now, I'm not an expert on romantic relationships, but that could hurt your romance with Skye, could it not?"

Ward gave him a look that tried to be calm, but Arthur could see in his eyes that Ward was admitting Arthur had indeed bested him without throwing a punch. So instead, he gave a cocky grin while turning his head to the side as if he were expecting a response. Ward remained quiet and nodded.

"Right." Arthur said, opening the door to the test chamber, "I'm off to deal with saving people's lives."

Before he left, he looked at Ward.

"And don't ever call me incompetent again, okay? Thanks." He said, without giving Ward a second to answer before he closed the door.

Arthur walked up to Eric who was looking over the machine he explained would be used to test everyone. It was a chair with restraints that was hooked up to a computer-table which Eric was standing over when Arthur entered. Eric looked up to see him there.

"We gotta take this test now." He said, "We need to leave as soon as possible."

"Just let your team know and we'll take care of everything." Eric assured, "But I warn you, I will know if you're HYDRA or keeping a secret from me. This thing was commissioned by Fury himself to be so perfect so that even Romanov couldn't beat it."

"Did she?" Arthur asked, curiously.

"Like Fury was going to tell anyone." Eric said, rolling his eyes, "Just bring your team in here and we'll be all set to go."

…

_**Soon…**_

"Please state your name." Eric said.

"Sabrina Marie Washionton." Sabrina said.

"Where is your family?"

"My Mom and Dad…" Sabrina sighed, "They're somewhere else, I don't know. I don't really have much reason to visit anymore. I also had an older brother, but he…he died. Twice."

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?"

"Many, many differences." Sabrina told him, "I could be here all day…the different mineral structures, the textures…"

"Okay." Eric said, assuring her it was all right, "Let's move on. "You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"Oh!" Sabrina blushed, "Um…uh...well...I'd want someone to be there with me. I work better with other people… so… Bruce Gordon...because…he's my partner."

Eric noted her stammering but saw that the readings were showing this as a result of embarrassment and love. No doubt for Bruce Gordon.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"When you say partner, do you mean romantic or professional?" Eric asked, seriously.

"Uh…" Sabrina said worriedly.

"Relax." Eric assured, "I'm just teasing. Anyways… next question. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Sabrina leaned back in the chair and sighed.

"I want to help people. After my brother died...I was just lost. I always loved science so I wanted to use my love for science by doing something that could ultimately save people and the world. That's why I'm here with S.H.I.E.L.D. And if HYDRA offers me the same, I'd tell them to go jump off a cliff."

"To their faces?" Eric asked, surprised.

"No!" Sabrina assured, "I'd just run away. Though that's what I would say if I could."

"Understandable." He said, "Congratulations. You passed."

….

"What's your name?" Koening asked

"Agent Bruce John Gordon." Bruce responded.

"Where is your family?"

"My parents are in San Francisco, my Uncle John and Aunt Jessica were in DC last time I checked and that's it."

Eric nodded and looked over the computer screen in front of him. Bruce was honest so far.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" He questioned.

"An Egg is what Birds use to make their babies. A rock is a item of nature that can be a weapon." Bruce said at a fast pace.

"Good. You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"A book on how to build a raft so I can get off said island." Bruce answered 30 seconds later.

Koening looked at him with a raised eyebrow, though his readings said Bruce wasn't lying.

"You really are clever, Bruce." He complemented.

"Thank you, Eric." Bruce acknowledged

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Bruce slouched towards Eric

"I'm here for 2 reasons," Bruce explained, without a second thought, "One is Sabrina. I love her and there is nothing I wouldn't do for her. Two is because I am loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and I want to help Arthur find Igraine and stop her. For everyone's sake. Especially Sabrina. Igraine has a lot to answer for after that stunt with Sabrina's past."

Eric nodded. Everything checked out perfectly.

"Bruce Gordon." He said, "You are checked out perfectly."

"Thank you." Bruce said, as Eric released him and shook his hand.

"Though between you and me." Eric said, "She really likes you as well it appears so you might want to let her know you really do care for her that much."

"Okay." Bruce nodded, "Thank you."

…

"What is your name?"

"Faye Anne Carter." Faye answered, "No relation to Peggy Carter before you ask."

"Understood." Eric nodded, "Where is your family now, Faye?"

"Don't know." Faye said, "I don't know my family at all."

"All right." Eric sighed, "What is the difference between an egg and a rock?"

Faye quickly thought about it before responding.

"An egg is a food. A rock is…a rock. But a rock could possibly be a weapon if desperate." She said.

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

Faye thought for a few seconds and then responded.

"A backpack with a gun and a laptop inside." Faye told him, "Gun for protection...laptop to get in contact with everyone."

"And the backpack?" Eric asked.

"A thing to use to store stuff in if need be." Faye answered.

"Okay." Eric said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

"Before, I was here to make a difference in the world by saving people and destroying the enemy. I didn't just want to be an orphan for my whole life. I wanted to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent once I knew about them. One of the best decisions I ever made...now...I'm here for that now as well. But now I'm also here to kick Hydra's ass once and for all."

She gave a small smirk before returning to her serious face again.

"Okay." Eric said, "Congratulations, Faye. You passed."

….

"What's your name?" asked Eric.

"Agent Jessica Smith." answered Jessica.

"Where is your family?"

"My mom lives in Chicago and I don't know where my dad lives he left before I was born." said Jessica .

"What about siblings?" asked Eric.

"I don't have any." said Jessica.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" asked Eric.

"Seriously?" Jessica asked, "An egg is food and a rock is a weapon."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"How big would the box be?" asked Jessica.

"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Eric assured.

"A SAT phone." Jessica said more seriously.

"Okay. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?" Eric asked.

"I here for help because..." said Jessica trailing off.

"Because..?" asked Eric curiously.

"Because I keep getting these strange urges to write these strange symbols and I don't know what they mean." said Jessica, truthfully she was terrified.

"I'm sure it will be okay." said Eric thinking she was going crazy. "Thank you Jessica Smith you have been cleared." …

"What's your name?" Koening asked

"Agent Katie Sheila." Katie responded.

"Where is your family?"

Katie sighed before answering.

"I don't know." Katie answered, honestly, "Been on my own my entire life mostly. There was one girl who I thought was my sister, but she died trying to get me to go on without her. I don't even know if my parents are alive or dead."

Eric nodded and looked over the computer screen in front of him. Katie was honest so far.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" He questioned.

"An Egg makes a good omelet. A rock makes for a good weapon to hit with." Katie said, without missing a beat.

"Good. You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

Katie thought for a few minutes.

"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Eric assured.

"Okay." Katie said, "In the box is a jetpack complete with stinger missiles, gatling guns, and one of those tiny rockets that when it hits and object just explodes with a huge boom to make Michael Bay retire from directing.

Koening looked at her surprised. The readings said she was fine.

"That's a pretty creative imagination you got there." He complemented.

"I've always wanted to use one of those things." Katie said.

"Couldn't see why you wouldn't want to use one of those." Eric said, "All right. Moving on… S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Katie pressed her head back against her chair.

"I'm here for Arthur." She answered, honestly, "He's been one of the few people who actually cared about me and believed I could be a part of something more than I already was. I have nowhere else to go."

Eric nodded. Everything checked out perfectly.

"Katie Sheila." He said, "You are checked out perfectly."

With that, he released her and shook her hand.

"Anyways," He said, "I do hope that when working with us, you get a chance to use a jetpack of some kind."

….

"What's your name?" Koening asked

"Agent Arthur Williams." Arthur responded.

"Where is your family?"

"My Dad died many years ago." Arthur answered, "My mother supposedly died before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., but it turns out they might've buried an android. Or something. I have no idea where she is."

Eric nodded and looked over the computer screen in front of him. Arthur was good so far.

"If you think Androids are freaky, you'll have to meet my twins sometime." Eric quipped, "Just don't let anyone else know. I want it to be a surprise for them."

Arthur nodded.

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?" Eric questioned.

"Really?" Arthur asked.

"Just answer the question."

Arthur sighed.

"Alright. An egg is an egg, and a rock is a rock." He shrugged.

"Good." Koening said, reading a clear 100% Honesty so far, "You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"Depends." Arthur said, "What's the island like? Is it inhabited? How advanced are the inhabitants…"

"Just say the first thing that comes to mind." Eric assured.

"Alright…" Arthur sighed, thinking quickly, "First thing…Captain America's shield."

Eric raised an eyebrow.

"You believe someone would leave probably the only source of vibranium, and a treasured icon and weapon of Steve Rogers for you?"

"No." Arthur corrected, "I believe HE would leave it for me for all the good work I've tried to do for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Okay…" Eric said, "Moving on…S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

Arthur leaned his head back.

"For as long as I remember, I wanted to do good in the world." He said, "I thought I could with S.H.I.E.L.D. The REAL S.H.I.E.L.D. not HYDRA's sick version of it. My loyalty is and always has been to S.H.I.E.L.D. should it ever be disbanded, I would follow any agent who was still good, and I would follow them into action even if it took me to hell and back."

"Okay. One last question." Eric asked.

"Shoot."

"What happens if those you are following who are good turn out to be HYDRA?"

"Then I trick them into doing one of their 'hail HYDRA' salutes, and kick them in the stones. I grab the guy's gun, dodge bullets, and shoot for the legs which catches them off guard as they'd expect me to shoot for the chest. After they have been disabled, I shoot them in the chest and run off trying to find whoever else I can to work for without getting myself arrested by the government."

"That was…that was a very specific answer, Mr. Williams." Eric told him, "But it appears you are cleared. You're free to go."

….

_**Soon…**_

Arthur and his team entered the Spec-Ops plane, loaded with whatever gadgets they couldn't carry. Tyler was being left behind, but Arthur had some trust that those who would remain behind would be able to take good care of him.

"Arthur…" Jessica called, "Please, just let me go with you!"

"For the last time, NO!" Arthur yelled.

"But Arthur…" She begged.

"Shut up!" Arthur told her, "Just shut up. You aren't going, Jess. That's final. But I will have more to talk to you about once we're done with this mission."

With that, he pushed a side-button and the loading hatch shut tightly. Jessica walked away as the plane left, feeling more miserable about herself than she already did.

…

_**Later, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida…**_

Blair Praetor walked along a dark street. It was late and she needed to get home after the long talk with her father. After S.H.I.E.L.D. being disbanded, she was trying to find some other means of employment, and so far the long hours spent giving information about the former peacekeeping organization to her father were not looking so good.

Fortunately, she figured this would be the final talk she'd have and she could continue searching for jobs again. As she checked her phone, she failed to notice a black ooze-like substance drip out of a flickering lamppost, and then slither towards her like an animal silently stalking its prey.

Blair finally realized what was happening when a hand wrapped itself around her throat, getting her in a chokehold position.

"Well, well…" A voice with a hint of a gangster accent said, "If it isn't Agent Blair Praetor. Or is that former Agent Blair Praetor now?"

Blair turned to see a bald light skinned man, wearing a black trench coat and gloves with dark pants, smiling as he held her close. He had a bit of a dark beard and moustache to him as well.

"Chester Rowland…" Blair breathed, surprised, "How the hell did you find me?"

"Let's just say a little friend told me." Chester admitted, "Though he prefers that stays between me and him. What happens between you 'n me on the other hand…"

Blair took this opportunity to try and step on his foot. However, the super-criminal simply phased his foot and Blair's shoe went straight into the area where Chester's foot should've been before it phased back in and she found herself stuck in there. She tried head-butting him, but he phased again and she fell to the ground face-first. Seeing the lamppost a few inches away, she attempted to crawl away, but then found her arms being held down by a shadow-like force and her legs soon followed. Blair looked up to see Chester, ready to envelop her with his shadow power. She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

And then she heard a voice she never thought she'd be relieved to hear again.

"CHESTER ROWLAND!"

Chester turned only to be shot in the face by a blue substance. His grip on Blair loosened and she turned around to see Arthur Williams standing there tall with a S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued handgun of some kind. Arthur reloaded and shot Chester in his chest area.

Before he could fire another round, Chester phased away, turning into a black oozing figure and then scurried away as Arthur tried to shoot him. Sadly, he ended up missing and Chester scurried away.

"Damn…" Arthur said, taking out his walkie-talkie, "Arthur to Katie, I lost Rowland but I got Blair. I'll be back with her soon."

"Copy that, Arthur." Katie replied.

Arthur went over to Blair offering her his hand.

"You all right?" He asked, "I'd suggest you come with me if you want to live."

Blair was shocked and took Arthur's hand. There was something different about him now. He looked and acted like the same determined S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent she remembered him as, but his eyes didn't look as fierce as she remembered them. They were not the eyes of someone who took the role of a general and only cared about order and security. They were the eyes of someone who was looking at her with empathy and concern for a fellow human being.

Blair took his hand and stood up.

"Arthur." She said.

"Blair." He smirked, "Just like the old days, right?"

Blair gave a funny face at him.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"You're smiling." She pointed out.

"Yeah. So?" Arthur asked.

"The Arthur Williams I knew never smiled." She pointed out, "What happened to you?"

"I got better." He assured, "Now do you want to trust me or not?"

She shrugged.

"I got nothing else better to do." She admitted.

…

_**Providence…**_

Tyler sat in the lie-detector seat as Eric interviewed him.

"What is your name?" Eric asked.

"Tyler Boateng." Tyler replied, hoping Igraine's little invention worked.

"Where is your family?"

"My mother is working as a teacher and my dad is gone...he died for SHIELD and put his life on the line!" Tyler said, faking annoyance to make it look like he was trying and get some sort of quick end to this interview.

"Can you elaborate further?" Eric asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said, bluntly.

"Hey." Eric assured, "I was just trying to…"

He saw Tyler's hardened face, and just waved it away.

"Nevermind." He assured, "Anyways…What is the difference between an egg and a rock?"

"An egg is white and yellow food..a rock is.. a rock exactly what it says on the tin." Tyler said.

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

Tyler thought for a minute.

"That question's a bit stupid, don't you think?" He asked.

He saw Eric was not amused, and still waiting for a response.

"All right." Tyler replied, "Fine. I'll play along...a wad of cash a pistol and some rations."

He looked at Eric annoyed.

"Can I go now? I hate waiting..."

"One last question." Eric assured, "This one is the most important. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. What are you here for?"

"I'm here to make difference to everyone's life and to prove that my father's legacy remains strong. I would've loved to meet Nick Fury too...he's practically the father i never had...I'm also here to become a better person..."

Eric's eyebrows raised as he saw that Tyler's readings were spiking just a bit.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

Eric took out a gun. Tyer balled his fists, secretly activating the hidden gadget made for his hidden skin on his right palm which would hopefully fool the lie detector.

"Agent Boateng." He replied, "Are you here for another reason?"

"No." Tyler assured.

The readings were still reading it as a lie.

"Agent Boateng." Eric said, sternly, "Are you HYDRA?"

He raised his gun ready to shoot Tyler, but he sat there defiantly trying to assure Eric he wasn't.

"No." He assured, "why would you even suggest such a thing! My record is practically spotless? Why would HYDRA recruit a nobody like me? This is a sign of my loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D."

He motioned for Eric to walk over. Eric did so, keeping his gun on Tyler at all times.

"Check my right pocket." He assured.

Eric reached in and pulled out a rosary.

"Check the back of it..." Tyler assured, "It says S.H.I.E.L.D. ...that was the last gift my father ever gave me...S.H.I.E.L.D. is in my blood..."

Eric did so and went back over to the controls to see that Tyler was telling the truth. He sighed and lowered his gun.

"Cool." He said, tossing Tyler back the rosary.

….

_**Meanwhile, Ft. Lauderdale, Sternako Inn…**_

Katie looked up from the balcony to see Arthur returning. He was helping a young woman who had short curled red hair and glasses, and was wearing a white T-Shirt and blue jeans.

"He's back." She called to the others.

They had rented out this hotel since they would need somewhere where there was lots of lights. According to Arthur, Chester had a weakness like any other bad guy. In Chester's case, if he was anywhere where there were bright lights, his powers couldn't work. That was why they made sure to rent this hotel out. The current lighting fixtures would have to do at this point and it would set their already-dwindling budget back quite a bit. So they had to make sure this was well worth the cost.

Soon, Arthur was upstairs and the young woman was with him as well.

"How are we, Katie?" Arthur asked.

"As can be expected." Katie pointed out.

"I'm sorry." Blair apologized, "Who's this?"

"Oh," He said, "Blair, this is Katie, my protégé. She's the one you can thank for me changing my behavior."

"Nice to meet you." Katie greeted.

Blair looked confused, so Arthur allowed her inside where the rest of his team was waiting.

"Blair," He said "This is the rest of my team."

He pointed them all out.

"This is my Technician Bruce Gordon, my biology expert Sabrina Marie Washionton, and my team field agent and current pilot, Faye Anne Carter."

Blair looked at the agents and turned to Arthur.

"Faye's not the pilot." She pointed out.

Arthur looked at her surprised.

"Black Widow leaked the whole information database of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the world." She pointed out, "It's part of the reason I've been having such a tough time lately. It's not gotten any better with Chester returning."

"We want to help in any way possible." Arthur said.

"Arthur," Blair sighed, "You've become horrible at lying. I know you're mainly doing this to prove yourself as a leader. I'll help you in whatever way I can, but afterwards…we'll see what happens. But I'm not ready to work with you again just yet."

Arthur stood there for a few minutes but nodded.

"Understood." He assured.

"Alright." She said, "Now I don't know how he broke out, but he said someone tipped him off to where I was."

"I think we have a good idea of where he got that info from." Arthur assured, "But why would he go now?"

"I think I know." Blair sighed, "After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, my dad asked me to turn over all my S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment to him."

"And why would your Dad want that?" Katie asked.

"Because he's one of the top government funded scientists that isn't a part of S.H.I.E.L.D." Blair answered.

"So he's going after the items." Arthur sighed, "Perfect. There goes my plan of actually having an idea of what to do. I assume you gave him the stuff we used to put Chester away the first time, right?"

"Yes." Blair answered with a smile, "But he didn't have everything…"

Arthur turned and looked at her with raised eyebrows. Blair just smiled.

"I held onto this little thing." Blair said, passing him a note, "As an experimental technician in charge of testing S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment, I nicked this off of one of the scientists who were doing experiments on him when he was put away. Turns out there was something else they discovered which could incapacitate him. Remember when we used those special tasers to knock him out?"

"Yeah." Arthur asked.

"Well," Blair smiled, "If your friends are up for it, there's a test they successfully conducted where they found that by charging him by a current of 58.5 kiloamperes transferred charge of 510 megajoules precisely, we might be able to keep him down long enough to let the proper authorities handle this."

"And who's that?" Arthur asked.

"The Avengers." Blair said, with a shrug.

Everyone looked at her surprised.

"Wait…" She asked, realizing something, "You honestly didn't see the announcement?"

"We've been kinda busy." Faye pointed out.

Blair went outside and returned shortly after with a newspaper featuring Captain America standing next to the other Avengers. Arthur quickly scanned the article, as his eyes widened. He handed the paper back to her and nodded.

"The Avengers it is." He replied.

"Wait!" Sabrina said, "Aren't you going to get upset on the fact that I stole something that day and never returned it?"

"Like I said," Arthur replied winking at Katie briefly, "I'm a changed man now."

…

_**Later, Providence…**_

Tyler left the room satisfied. He and Ward had managed to make quick work of Eric while he wasn't looking. Now Ward was beginning to make plans for him and Skye to crack the secrets they had got from S.H.I.E.L.D. and then Tyler would chart his own plane to prepare for the final phase of Igraine's operation.

Moving around a corner, he saw Jessica walking forward, her head turned to the ground.

Noticing him, her eyes lit up with hope.

"Oh! Tyler!" She called, "Can I talk to you for a…"

"Not now, Jessica." He said, shooing her off.

Jessica felt her faith break even further. She couldn't find Ward and Eric was nowhere to be seen.

As she came to Eric's office, she found Skye there and looked at her.

"Hi, Skye." She greeted.

Skye looked up shocked, as she quickly looked like she was trying to hide something.

"What uh…what are you doing?" Jessica asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Nothing." Skye told her.

"You sure?" Jessica asked.

"Look, Jessica." Skye assured, "Not that I don't like you or anything, but everybody's on their toes about the whole trust thing nowadays, okay? I'd like to stay out of it."

Skye didn't need to lie. Jessica knew exactly what she was saying and nodded.

"All right." She said, "I get it. Nobody trusts me. I did one job for Fury and look where it got me. I should've just said no."

"Jess…" Skye said.

"Don't bother." Jessica replied, walking off, "It's clear nobody trusts me, so I'll do everybody a favor then."

She left the room now walking on an uncharted future.

…

_**Meanwhile, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida…**_

Bruce and Sabrina rigged up their machine. Thanks to Blair's notes, they would most likely now have a machine now capable of producing the necessary electricity needed to incapacitate Chester when he returned.

Theoretically anyways.

The machine itself was a massive metal configuration that had a laptop hooked into it, a small electrical-like rod on the far right top corner of the machine, and what appeared to be a metallic magnet attatched to a rod at the front.

"Are you sure this'll work?" Faye asked, joining them, "Arthur and Blair should be getting ready to lead him back here any second now."

"We have a good feeling it will." Bruce assured her.

"Based on the notes, and some other theories we looked up in our old database," Sabrina added, "This thing only has a 5% chance of not working."

"Well," Faye said, "95% is better than nothing, I guess. Just be ready for when Arthur comes back."

…

_**Meanwhile, The Research and Development Program for a Brighter Tomorrow…**_

Brian Praetor was in heaven right now as he looked over all the different things his daughter had given to him. He was working the late shift hours and figured he'd be here for another week before he knew what all this stuff was. There were guns, communication items, and all manners of secret spy gear strewn all around the table as he worked to uncover what each thing did.

As he worked, he suddenly realized that the lights weren't working. They were starting to flicker on and off which was curious because Brian knew that the staff here had replaced the lights yesterday.

As he went over to look at it, he was caught off-guard when the lights short-circuited, leaving the room in darkness. He went to leave the room when he was met by a new figure.

"Hello." Chester replied, punching Brian out.

He went over to collect the stuff, when there was a sudden sound of gunfire and he felt some tingles in his back.

Turning around, he saw Brian and Blair standing behind him, guns both directed his way.

"Wow!" He laughed, "You two really are as dumb as you look. Did you really think you could fight me here, on my own turf?"

"Nope." Arthur grinned, taking out a small handheld disk-like object, "But that's why we brought this."

With that, he threw the object forward. The device began to spin around like a top and a sudden burst of blue energy filled the area as the lights returned.

"Like it?" Arthur asked, "We call it an R.E.M.P. Or a Reverse Electric Magnetic Pulse."

"I don't need my powers to kill you." Chester declared, as he charged at them.

Arthur took Blair's hand and ran away with her.

"Nope." Arthur replied, "But you'll have to catch us first!"

The two ran quicker than either had ever ran in their lives. Eventually, they reached the doors and ran to where Blair's car was. The two former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents hopped in and Arthur imminently took off. Chester exited the building and saw them leaving. However, he was surprised when a note flew out from the driver's window and landed near his feet. Picking it up, he read the message.

'_Hey, Chester,_

_Wanna play? Or has all the time you spent put away made you a bit soft?_

_I'm laughing at your powers. I mean 'Shadow Powers?' That's what you call them?'_

There was nothing else there except a drawing of what appeared to be a butt.

Chester grabbed the paper, crumpling it in his hands. Then he turned into his shadow form and began speeding after the car at a pace that no human could possibly achieve.

"Looks like he didn't like my drawing of a butt." Arthur noticed, seeing the shadowy figure moving towards them at a tremendous speed, "All right, let's see if he can try us when we're going at 90 Miles Per Hour."

With that, he kicked the speed up an extra notch as the shadowy figure continued to pursue them.

…

_**Meanwhile, Providence…**_

Tyler and Ward were walking at a fast pace together. Ward had talked to Skye who said that she suspected Jessica might be a HYDRA agent due to how funny she was acting. However, while Ward had promised her that he and Tyler would find out through reasonable means, they figured that Jessica might've been on to them and realized that now they had to take care of her at this moment rather than later.

Tyler didn't like wasting any more time, but even he knew that there couldn't be any loose ends left.

As they reached Jessica's room which had been assigned to her, the door opened revealing Jessica dressed head-to-toe in Winter Gear with a large bag worn around her back. She looked at the two and sighed.

"I see Skye didn't stop at lying to me." She said, "Well, get on with it."

"I'm sorry." Ward apologized, "We just wanted to talk to you. We know you've been through a lot."

"Yeah?" Jessica asked, "Well I guess this is where it ends for me."

"So you're leaving." Tyler pointed out.

"I can't stay here anymore." Jessica replied, "I've lost faith in everyone as they've lost their faith in me."

"So where'll you go?" Ward asked, as he motioned for her to leave.

"Honestly?" Jessica asked, moving past them, "I have no idea."

…

_**Meanwhile, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida…**_

"Okay, look alive!" Faye called out, "Here they come!"

The group watched as a car bolted down the road towards them, with a black shadowy shape following close behind. Bruce and Sabrina quickly prepped the machine working as quick as they could. Katie stood nearby with a controller that resembled an old gaming console, ready to fire when need be.

In the car, Arthur was making good speed, but even now as he saw the home stretch, Chester was catching up to them. Suddenly, one of the shadowy figure's tendrils got over one of the tires, and slammed down into it. Suddenly, the tire disappeared leaving a flat paper-thin tire on the road behind them. The car suddenly started to spin out of control, and then turned before flipping around as it tumbled towards them.

Behind the car, Chester's shadowy figure got closer. It almost looked like a large gaping mouth that was ready to devour the car in one bite.

Before it could, Bruce and Sabrina fired the machine as it moved past the spinning car and hit Chester right in where the large mouth-like structure was.

Chester suddenly howled in pain as he felt his whole body was burning alive. It was almost as if he had been skinny-dipping in lava mixed with acid (and not the fun kind.) He fell to the ground, his shadowy body taking on all sorts of different shapes and sizes until it turned into one big murky pile of goop before shrinking back down to reveal Chester, out and unconscious.

Faye went over to the crashed car and opened it, revealing Arthur and Blair. Both of their hair were a mess and both looked shell shocked. Suddenly, the two turned to each other and started chuckling. Then they started laughing, almost having to hold onto each other for support.

"Well, looks like everything's back to normal." Katie pointed out, "I'll call the Avengers."

She went to find a payphone, but then went back looking a bit embarrassed.

"Um…" She asked, "Two questions; does anyone have any change, and does anyone know The Avenger's Phone Number?"

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

Jessica walked down the long road in Canada, uncertain of her future. Suddenly, her phone rang. Looking at it, she discovered that it was a text from an unknown caller.

'You need to run. Now.' The text read.

Katie looked confused, and texted back.

'Who is this?'

She waited before a response popped up.

'It doesn't matter. Just keep walking. And keep your gun with you at all times.'

Jessica felt nervous but did so, keeping one hand on the gun inside her coat, and the other on the phone so she could read it while she walked at the same time.

'When you hear footsteps behind you,' The text read, 'Just keep walking until they sound like they're five feet behind you. Then turn around to face them. Shoot your gun five inches to the right and then the same on the left.'

Jessica kept walking, and eventually she heard the sound of the people walking quickly to get to her. Then, once they were about five feet away, she spun around and fired her gun as instructed. Her shots hit two men dressed in black winter gear, and they went down. Jessica could only guess who they might be.

Her phone rang again and there was another text.

'Do you see a motorcycle nearby?'

Jessica looked and saw two motorcycles nearby.

'Yeah?' She asked.

'Steal one and keep driving down the road.'

Jessica quickly got on one, putting a helmet on, and securing her bag with some tape she had brought with her in her bag on the off-chance she might need it. Then she was off. Almost instantly, there was a series of gunshots coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw more men with guns shooting from the rear end.

"SHIT!" She swore, "Where the hell did they come from?!"

Her phone texted again so she quickly glanced at it.

'It's all right. Just keep your head bellow the window.'

Jessica didn't understand what that meant, but she did so anyways. Then something passed quickly over her head and an explosion was heard behind her. Turning around, she saw a trail of fire as some of the thugs had been incenerated. Focusing back on the road ahead, she saw there was another message.

'Okay. You need to drive straight going at 90 Miles Per Hour.'

Jessica looked ahead and saw where she was driving. The road was intersected with two ways. One was going right where the road continued onwards, but the path ahead was a cliff with no railings and leading down a steep mountain.

"You gotta be kidding me…" She breathed, annoyed.

Another text appeared.

'Trust me.'

Jessica sighed and sped up.

She closed her eyes as the road beneath her disappeared. She almost seemed to soar as she began her long descent, but before she knew what was happening, the bike touched down on the ground and then sped into a wall which Jessica hit before blacking out.

…

_**Meanwhile, Ft. Lauderdale…**_

Arthur helped Blair into her car. They had managed to get what they needed from her Dad's lab and Blair was planning on getting the hell out of town as she didn't feel safe leaving the old equipment with anyone else to make them a target now. Additionally, Blair's car had been outfitted with a spare from her Dad's own car.

"Just keep driving and remember to keep your head down." Arthur told her.

"Arthur…" Blair said, looking at him seriously, "Thank you. For everything."

"Your welcome." Arthur said, "Remember, if you want to rejoin us, you can."

"Maybe." She replied, "But right now, I have some reflecting to do. I might one day, but I don't imagine it'll be for a while."

She sighed and looked at him.

"Arthur," She said, "You're not a bad person, but you're not boyfriend material. Not for me anyways. You need to find something to treasure, or at least a friend to keep you headed in the right direction."

Arthur looked at the ground and nodded before looking back at her.

"I guess if I had behaved during that date, things might not've turned out that way." He suggested.

"It's not about that night, Arthur." Blair assured him.

"Understood." Arthur said, "Best of luck to you, Blair."

"Same to you, Arthur." Blair replied.

With that, she took off. Arthur watched her drive until she turned a corner and was out of sight.

He looked at the rest of his team.

"She's right." Arthur said, "We need to get back to Jessica. I need to apologize to her for what I said and did."

Before they could move, Arthur heard something over his communications frequencies.

"Arthur." Tyler's voice called, "Eric's taking a bathroom break, Jess is acting weird, May's working on the plane, and Ward and Skye are doing their own thing, but I have good news. I had a friend do some recon and he found the Hammer CEO's walking around. He spiked their drinks with a nanotracker and they're saying something you might want to hear. Listen to this."

With that, Arthur heard the voices of Justine and Sasha Hammer over his communications channel.

"So our meetings were a complete success?" Sasha's voice asked.

"Indeed." Justine replied, "Igraine will be very pleased to know most of the people she wanted to survive her plan are now completely on-board with her. When we meet her at the harbor for the wedding party of that Kelli Ainsworth girl and the Russian guy's descendant, we'll be able to finally go through with her plan."

"The Grand Vanity Cruise…" Arthur realized, "That's their next step. They're planning something bad for Abel Fennhoff's wedding to Kelli Ainsworth."

"Correct. I managed to snag you an invitation if you interested." Tyler said, "If Igraine's there..."

"Then we have a chance to end this." Arthur realized, "Tyler, I owe you one."

He shut down his communications and turned to his teammates.

"Come on." He said, "Let's wrap this up."

"But what about Jessica?!" Katie asked.

"We can deal with that afterwards." Arthur assured, "This might be our one chance to catch Igraine. Now let's go!"

…

_**Later, The Grand Vanity Cruise Ship…**_

Arthur sat watching the wedding of Doctor Fennhoff's relative. The ship's wedding area was packed as the priest did the traditional wedding ceremony. The credentials Tyler had given him worked perfectly and so he was sitting while wearing one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old toys. This was something created by Leo Fitz to serve as a pair of glasses that would allow images that the wearer was looking at to be transferred remotely so that everyone else watching on a laptop could see what was happening. He also had a hidden earpiece so he could listen to things from his team and respond when needed.

"Nice day for a white wedding." Katie responded, "Can you see Igraine or the Hammers there?"

Arthur shook his head.

….

_**Not too far away…**_

"We're in position, Igraine." A man in the shadowy area said.

He was currently working on a series of computers as a woman also hidden in the shadows worked as well.

"If this is a success," She said, "Then you can sell your little ideologies after I've unleashed this on everyone else. What better way to test it than on a wedding. If it works on people when they're all happy, it's going to work on everyone. Plus, with Arthur there, we'll know if even people who are as mentally strong as him are as weak to this or not."

"And if it doesn't?" The man asked.

She took out a small suitcase revealing a mechanical device including a button and a dial in there, as well as a touch screen.

"It will." She assured.

….

_**The Yatch…**_

Arthur began to rise from the wedding, but was stopped by the woman sitting next to him. She had long red hair and was wearing a yellow frilly dress.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

Arthur attempted to move past her, but she blocked him.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" She repeated.

Arthur looked at her sternly before speaking.

"I'm a Catholic fanatic who's late for a date with his black Irish Christian boyfriend, followed by writing our annual blogs about why we love the current US Government so much, and are advocating for a pro-abortion government of people's own free choice."

The woman looked at him with her mouth agape as Arthur smiled.

"So lehiem to you and the couple here," Arthur concluded, "and have a wonderful rest of the wedding. Live long and prosper."

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

"He's leaving…" The man pointed out, as they watched Arthur getting up on the screen.

"All right, fine." The female leader announced, annoyed, "I'll release the weapon then. "

She took out a small microphone.

"Earplugs on, everyone." She announced.

Everyone including her and the man put the earplugs in, and Igraine began working some touch-screen items on the hidden computer laptop.

"Let's hope that enough people here brought our products." She added, almost silently.

With that, she pressed a few buttons quickly, and then pressed a big red button. The device hummed, and the machine was now activated.

….

_**Back on the Yacht…**_

As Arthur was leaving, he could hear the complaints from people who had overheard his conversation with the lady he had been sitting next to. Speaking of which, she was following him on the way out, talking on and on about how she and her people were better than him, and he would die for such a remark.

Suddenly, the room felt different. Arthur closed his eyes, suddenly feeling as if he were sleepwalking. He opened them, still not feeling as if he were completely in control. Then a thought passed by into his brain.

Kill.

Arthur didn't hesitate and instead pulled out his gun, pointing it at the woman's head. He hesitated for a minute, as if he were threatening her to shut up. Suddenly, the urge felt stronger and he fired his gun. The woman's head exploded into a bunch of mush, spilled brains, hair, and other unpleasant items. Suddenly, the whole wedding party broke out into anger and frustration as everyone in there attacked the closest person to them. Arthur didn't know what the hell had happened to him, but he didn't care, his only instinct was to kill everybody in the place until he was the last man standing. Rolling down the aisle, he fired his gun off four times, killing four civilians with each shot. He then grabbed a man directly in front of him by the neck, attempting to choke him out, but was interrupted when another guest slammed an entire row of the chapel-like seats into his back. In any other situation, Arthur might've been broken by such an attack, if not mortally wounded. But instead, he felt like nothing had happened, and so with his gun arm pointed behind him, he fired a shot, killing the man. He then took his other foe he had captured, and quickly shot an attacking guest in the eye, before shooting his hostage in the head.

Leaping over, he found two men to his right fighting over control of a large wooden stick. Using his gun to break the stick in half, Arthur took the now broken sticks and shoved it into both men's throats. Seeing a blonde-haired female in her teens attempting to choke out an older woman with raven-dark hair, Arthur pointed his gun and fired only to discover he was out of ammo. Taking a new approach, Arthur grabbed the young teen by both of her shoulders, forcing her to turn around. Wasting no time, Arthur spun around and delivered a quick yet powerful side-kick to the throat, as the woman gave a horrible wheezing gasp, falling over dead. The woman she had been fighting looked equally surprised, and Arthur took this minute of realization to flip her on her back with a loud "HAI!" He then stomped over where her heart was, resulting in him literally stopping her heart, crushing her ribs, and puncturing her spine, killing her in three different ways at the same time.

….

_**Back on the Spec-Ops Plane…**_

"Jesus Christ!" Katie declared.

She and Faye were shocked. They couldn't do anything besides watch as the people on the yacht (including Arthur) were slaughtering everybody else. Arthur was being brutal and they couldn't for the life of themselves, figure out what the hell the problem was.

"Agent Williams!" Katie declared, "ARTHUR!"

"Arthur what the hell's going on in there?!" Faye demanded.

There was no response as Arthur karate-chopped a bridesmaid in the throat, causing her to fall over dead.

"Bruce! Sabrinia!" Katie demanded, "Do a scan of the ship and find out what the hell is making Arthur so violent."

"I think we could be able to explain." A voice suggested.

The two women turned around to see Agent Ward standing next to a bunch of people dressed in black army gear pointing guns at them.

"If, of course, we can see eye-to-eye on things." Ward added.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

"So Ward's captured Artie's little team." The other figure declared, "And the results are in on the electrical wave."

"How much of an effect?" The woman asked.

"100%."

The woman's eyebrows rose.

"So everybody's been affected from just one product alone." She replied.

"And that boy is kicking some major ass." The other pointed out, eying the monitor showing Arthur on there.

…

_**Back on the Yacht…**_

Arthur was fighting with an old woman who was surprisingly strong despite her frail demeanor. Arthur simply got her in a chokehold, and using his other hand, twisted her fingers backwards, one by one. The woman screamed in pain as they snapped off, and Arthur then used two of the ripped fingers to stab her in the head. He then rolled over to another nearby male who was trying to stab another man with a broken chair piece. Before either could react, Arthur activated the hidden flamethrower in his watch, setting the two men ablaze as they were consumed in the fire and burned to death.

He heard a gun being fired behind him, and rolled over towards the owner, jumping up with a hard punch to the chin, sending the gun wielder back, and his gun into the air. Arthur caught the gun and shot him in the head as a woman was pushed down nearby him as he landed. Arthur took the gun and as he came down, fired hitting her in the face.

Then without warning, somebody came up behind him with a cake knife and plunged it deep into his shoulder. Arthur barely felt it and instead turned around and shot him in the face. More people showed up with guns wearing boat engineer clothes. Arthur didn't question it and instead used his last victim as a literal human shield, to protect himself from the engineers.

He kept firing, taking down at least several out of the engineers, but then he was out of bullets.

Then something extraordinary happened.

Almost instinctively, Arthur grabbed one of the large church benches that had been brought over for the wedding and picked it up, despite being longer and no doubt heavier than he was. Using it as a bat, Arthur swung it, knocking the upper torso off of five engineers. The others ducked, only for two more of them to be smashed when Arthur slammed it on top of their bodies. The last four engineers who thought they had been lucky to roll backwards and out of the way were then crushed when Arthur slammed the benches into their bodies, splatting them on the wall like a fly.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Oh, you gotta see this." The man said, hitting his communications button, "Hey, Ward! Ten bucks says Arthur's gonna be the last man standing."

"Sorry, sir." The voice of Agent Ward replied, "Not interested."

"Ah, come on, Ward." The figure laughed, "It'll be fun!"

"No thanks." He said, "Besides, I'm already bringing in the last of his crew."

"Well at the very least you can make them watch Arthur do this, okay?" The figure asked.

"…All right." Ward replied.

….

_**Back on the Yacht…**_

Arthur had made his way up to the top of the Yacht where it was just as much pandemonium up there as it was down there. There were only fifty people left killing each other on the front deck, and Arthur was still going for slaughtering as many as he could.

Grabbing a metal rail on the edge, he broke off part of a piece, and slashed at the neck of a man trying to strangle a blonde haired woman. The man's neck began bleeding and Arthur quickly stabbed his weapon into the eye of the blonde woman. He then saw a man running at him with a knife and ducked down and struck forward with a punch to the temple. The man gasped and fell to the ground dead as Arthur made sure his punch hit a large vital artery that was usually located there, causing him permeant brain damage that wouldn't allow him to get up again. Arthur took the knife and quickly stabbed a young 15 Year-Old Boy in a tux repeatedly until he fell. Arthur then saw another boy around the same age charging at him, and quickly leaped behind the boy, before cupping his hands in a clapping motion over his victims' ears. The boy screamed and fell to the ground before he stopped moving and blood began spilling from his ears. Arthur had caused vibrations from the clapping motion which had burst his target's eardrums, and caused internal bleeding in the brain. Finally, Arthur saw the two last victims. One with a gun trying to fire at a muscular man who was using a woman as a human shield. Arthur threw his knife forward, hitting the woman in the eye and killing her. However, this was a distraction as the man trying to fire looked in shock. Arthur then grabbed the man with the gun and snapped his neck over his knee, taking his gun and unloading the final rounds into the muscular guy's chest.

At that moment, Arthur realized he was out of bullets and could hear the Sermon coming from behind. Arthur did what came to him first and ripped the woman's whole arm off. Using it as a weapon, he slapped the guy with the hand, making him drop the axe he had been brandishing, and Arthur put his foot on the sharp end, flipping it up into his hands, and hit the Sermon in the head repeatedly for three whole times. The Sermon's head opened up as his brains, blood, and other internal parts spilled onto the ground. Arthur continued to hit the Sermon's head with the axe, continuing to butcher him in full rage.

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Photo Frickin Finish!" The male figure declared, "And the last man standing is Arthur Williams. Shall we congratulate him, Ma'am?"

"Not yet." The female figure said, "Let me switch off the device first, and take a minute to compose myself. You and the others go over and begin to explain to him our plans."

"Whatever you want."

As the male figure left, the woman shut the device down.

….

_**Back on the Yacht…**_

Slowly, Arthur's anger began to fade away. Then he realized what he had done. He saw the Sermon whose head had been reduced to chunks of flesh and organs, and Arthur dropped the axe in shock. Looking around, he finally took notice of all the bodies he had slaughtered. His face turned pale with shock and horror. He looked down at his hands and saw they were covered in the blood of all those he had killed. They were horrible people, yes, but there was no need for Arthur to kill them at this very moment. They weren't like the Rising Tide, or AIM, or even…

"Well, well, well," A familiar voice called, "Color me impressed."

Arthur spun around as his worst fears were confirmed. Standing there was John Garett, alive and well. Next to him was Agent Ward, and Tyler Boateng and the two were flunked by a number of people in black military gear, all of which had the familiar image of a skull with octopus tentacles extending from there. Standing next to Ward and Garett though, was the woman they had captured after rescuing Coulson. Raina, he thought her name was. She was looking a bit dissatisfied with what had happened, though.

"I should've known." Arthur said.

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda." Garett smiled.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves." Arthur spat, "Joining HYDRA. Pretending to be S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents."

"Oh, no, Arthur. You misunderstand." Garett smiled, "We haven't joined HYDRA. We've always been HYDRA. It's all part of evolution, my friend. Something that you're going to have to learn pretty soon."

"What?!" Arthur demanded.

"You know," Ward said, "As much as I enjoyed your little theory, Arthur, the truth is less than you made it out to seem. Plus, the answer to who Igraine is should've been obvious from the start."

"So what the hell did you do to me then?!" Arthur demanded, "Why did I kill all those people against better judgment?"

"That you'll have to ask the one who made you do it." Garett said.

"Would that be you?" Arthur asked, pointing to the woman in the flower dress.

"No." She said, "I'm just their consultant. They have one more. The one that got away from you on numerous occasions, Agent Williams."

"And who is it, then?" Arthur asked, "Who made me do it?! TELL ME!"

"It's the one you've been following, Arthur." Tyler said, stepping up, "The woman who helped hand-pick me as chief of her own division's security. Igraine. The one who…"

"STOP TALKING IN GODDAMN RIDDLES!" Arthur declared, now getting annoyed, "IF IGRAINE'S SO POWERFUL, THEN LET HER COME OUT AND FACE ME BECAUSE QUITE FRANKLY, I'M SICK TO DEATH OF HAVING PEOPLE MOUTH OFF ABOUT HER AND WOULD RATHER SHE STOP PLAYING GAMES AND SHOW HERSELF FOR WHO SHE REALLY IS!"

He now felt angry again. He had been put through an absolute hell where he had no control over himself, and his patience had worn out now.

However, he should've remembered the old saying to be careful what you wish for. At that moment, he heard a familiar voice he thought he'd never hear again.

"Ask and you shall receive, Arthur."

He froze.

That voice…it couldn't be…

The people parted ways and Arthur almost screamed in horror. Standing before him now was a very familiar woman to him. She looked a bit different since the last time Arthur saw her. She had had long auburn hair, and was very fit despite having a few wrinkles on her face as a sign that she was nearing middle-age. She wore a HYDRA uniform like the other soldiers who kept their guns pointed at him.

The woman was none other than Arthur's own mother.

Arthur stared awestruck as his Mom nodded at him.

"Hello, son." She greeted.

"M...Mom?!" Arthur asked horrified, "It...It can't be you! That night...the heavy drinking...the car crash..."

"You know, Artie," Garett joked, "For a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with a list of achievements as big as yours you are quite gullible. We just injected mommy dearest here with a serum that fakes death vitals and then reawakens them later."

"Thank you for the explanation, Garett." Mrs. Williams said, "But I'll take it from here. You see, Arthur; I was like you once. I believed in the law and that it would bring happiness to everyone and defend ourselves from any harm."

She paused, looking straight into Arthur's eyes.

"The night your father died, the people who told me of his demise denied me the right to know how he died specifically." Mrs. Williams continued, looking deep into his eyes, "While I was working for the CIA, I hacked their systems and discovered the truth. The government asked your father to burn down a village. Just one village to try and get payback for losing the war. Afterwards, he went on to bear me with you before he was shot coming home by one of the survivors."

Arthur continued to look at his mother horrified. Everything he had done, everything he had worked to uphold was all possible because of his parents and now it turned out that was all a lie.

"From that moment on," Mrs. Williams said sternly, "I swore I would help make this country great again. Start over a new leaf to tear down the society of old and bring something new."

"Mom…" Arthur begged, "Please, listen to yourself! This isn't you! That thing that happened with you and Fury back in the CIA Days…something happened to your mind!"

"Nothing is wrong with my mind." She replied, "It is pure and clean. The incident helped expand my mind, Arthur. And it's what ultimately helped give me inspiration for what to do about this planet in order to save it."

Arthur glared at her, knowing that whatever his Mother had been was long-gone.

"What the hell did you do to me in there?" Arthur asked, changing the topic to more pressing matters, "I had no control over myself. Yet I knew what I was doing and I wanted those people dead."

"Simple," Arthur's Mom explained, "One of the theories I gave HYDRA about how Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk is that it's due to a pressurized bruise that envelops the entire body and a part of the brain calling for the more aggressive tendencies of the human mind to become more dominant while simultaneously increasing the subject's muscles, strength, and stamina."

"You poisoned us with radiation to prove a point?!" Arthur demanded, horrified.

"Of course not." His mother said, calmly, "We simply used HAMMER Industry's Phones as a way of releasing a new version of what was once called Midnight Oil. You know one of our allies tried using it on New York shortly after Captain America was lost, right? Sadly, it was destroyed by Howard Stark, but we managed to make our own version via a conversion of chemicals to an electrical pulse using the cells of both that Purple Man and the wonderful living light men you caught. The it also uses the Centipede Extremis Project Serum, but converted to everything to a small, yet large electrical form, this giving you the strength and purpose needed to kill everybody around you. It's all transmitted after a conversion into an electrical wave which makes all of this possible."

She looked at Arthur who was staring at her with his mouth hung open in shock.

"The people won't know they're beating each other to death." She explained, "To them, they'll just be mindless and unable to control they're aggressive tendencies. It's time to come home, Arthur. All of our assets have been outfitted to survive the purge and I'd rather that you stayed by my side."

"Screw you!" Arthur declared, "I'm not sitting by while you make this entire planet's people beat each other to death."

Ms. Williams sighed.

"I expected better from you, Arthur." She admitted.

BANG!

Before Arthur could react, he was looking at a red stain growing on his stomach. His mother stood over him, a smoking gun in her hand.

"But I didn't come unprepared." She noted.

Arthur tried to reach for his pistol, but his mother shot him in the hand. He screamed in pain, staggering back towards the rail on the side of the boat.

He could only lift his head up to see his mother pointing her gun at his chest.

"Goodbye son," she said, "Just remember that I loved you enough to give you a chance to join me."

With that, she fired and Arthur was sent off the side of the boat. His mother watched as the body disappeared into the distance. She turned back to her crew.

"Set a course for the base." She ordered, "We'll put Arthur's friends in the cells with the others. It's time to bring this plan online."

Soon they were miles and miles away from the body so they were unable to see a plane landing in the water, and two figures grabbing Arthur's still and bleeding body and bringing it onboard the plane.

...

Arthur was fading in and out. He could occasionally see flashes of bright lights and people in surgical attire standing over him.

"What's...status...ns?"

"...Lost so much blood...I think he can...ar us..."

"Oh…od! Arthur!"

"…ica…"

"Let me…p him!"

"…ine. S…ns…Can you...op it?"

"Yes."

"...it."

"Okay...absent breathing sounds on...side and muffled...sounds..."

It was so very difficult for Arthur to hear and he just felt extremely light-headed. His eyes rolled back upwards as he could head a flat beeping noise somewhere.

"Quick! Get...Now de-fibs and start compressions!"

"Ready!"

"Clear!"

Arthur felt a pain in his chest and jerked upwards.

Why was he still fighting?

"Clear!"

Another jerk upwards followed by the same pain.

Everything he had been told was a lie and now he was faced without his team backing him to take down a HYDRA section led by his mom who wanted to kill most of the population on Earth. Why did he need to live?

"Clear!"

As the pain surged through his chest one last time, it hit Arthur that he wasn't just fighting to stop HYDRA, it was about saving millions of people he didn't know. He couldn't go out now when he had been taken by surprise. If his team had taught him anything, it was to do everything for the world that he could until his time came.

That was another point. He owed his team and couldn't leave them in his Mom's hands.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't realize everything had gone white and he could hear someone calling his name. He couldn't tell who was calling, but slowly he could see a fuzzy image of a human-like figure coming into focus.

_Oh my god._ He thought, _No! I can't be dead! Not now! Please god, give me strength..._

"D...Dad?" He asked weakly, forming his words and regaining his speech motor functions, "Dad is that you?"

The image came in fully and he could see it was actually Simmons.

"Good! Agent Williams, welcome back!" She said happily, "To answer your question, you're not dead. We just managed to save you. Oh, and I have this…"

She reached over and handed Arthur a tin foil wrap.

"It's my special sandwich!" She smiled.

Arthur ignored her comment and looked seriously at his surroundings. It was some kind of metal structure and from the roaring-like noises outside, he figured this might be an airplane of some kind. The question was who this plane belonged to.

"I should be dead." Arthur pointed out, "Why am I still alive?"

"Beats me." A familiar voice replied, "But I think personally it was divine intervention."

Arthur turned to see much to his shock that Fury was there, alive and well. However, rather than wearing his eyepatch, he had a pair of sunglasses on as well as a short wool hat. Next to him was another familiar sight.

"Jessica?" Arthur asked, "Director Fury?!"

"You don't need to call me that, Agent Williams." Fury said, "Look at me. I'm dressed like I live under a bridge."

"Where am I?!" Arthur quickly asked, trying to sit up, "How long was I out?!"

"Only for a couple of hours." Fury said, "Right now we're onboard one of my special planes going to help Phil and his team."

He got up and looked at Arthur.

"Heard about your mother." He said, "You kept saying she was HYDRA in her sleep. I'm really sorry. But now we gotta help Phil."

"Fury, you don't understand!" Arthur pleaded, "My Mom's set up this device that's going to make everyone kill each other! We have to stop her..."

"Agent Williams." Fury said, "We tracked your mother's boat and she's on her way to Africa with god-knows how many HYDRA Agents, and we're just a few men and women. Right now, our concern is saving another ally and making sure he doesn't die again. Like I said; I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

He and Simmons left as Arthur lied in bed. Jessica sat next to him.

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

Jessica looked at him confused.

"I'm sorry I threw you out." He said, "If I'd known…"

"It's all right." She said, "The question is, what are you going to do now?"

Arthur looked at her confused.

"Fury's technically not the director anymore." She pointed out, "So he doesn't have any say over you. So what are you going to do, Arthur? Do you want to mope here all day, or do you want to save our friends?"

"Can we do that?" Arthur asked.

"Please." Jessica laughed, "As I left, I felt Tyler and Ward were up to something, so I brushed his hand while he wasn't looking and stuck a tracker on there. Igraine's gotta be with him right?"

"Yeah." Arthur said.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Jessica asked.

Arthur thought as he pushed himself up.

"I want you to come with me and help kick ass and chew bubblegum." Arthur stated.

Jessica smiled.

"Gladly."

….

_**Soon…**_

Arthur was already out of bed and packing everything he could.

"Arthur…"

He stopped and looked behind him to see Simmons standing in the doorway.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"To stop my Mom."

"Arthur, please!" Simmons explained, "You can't go up against your mother in your current condition."

"Which is why I have Jess going with me." Arthur stated.

"She's not exactly stable…"

"Then I'll break my team out and we'll do it together."

"But you don't even know if they're at the same place where your mother's being held! And even then, you don't have your weapons on you! It's complete suicide!"

"Look," Arthur said, sternly, "I don't care about what Fury says anymore. I have to do this or else millions of people are going to die. If I don't stop this now, I'll have to live with myself knowing I left my team and the rest of the world because I played by the book. I can't do it by the book anymore. In fact, I realize now I never needed to follow everything strictly by the rules in the first place to begin with. This is my choice, and nobody's gonna stop me from doing my job my way."

He nodded as he grabbed the bag he had been packing.

"So I appreciate your concern, Agent Simmons." Arthur noted, "But nothing you say or do is going to keep me from saving my team and the world."

He began to leave but Simmons said something that made him stop.

"Then what can I do to help?"

He looked at her surprised.

"You helped me out when Skye asked me to get into the Hub's restricted files." She pointed out, "Seems only fair that I be the one to repay that debt to you."

Arthur sighed.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright," Arthur said, "Here's what you need to do."

….

_**Soon…**_

Fury had come down when Simmons asked to look at Arthur. He was gone from his healing pod.

"I don't know what to say, Fury." Jemma said, "Maybe this is the beginning of evolution all over again, maybe it was from inhaling too much of the fumes, but I checked on Arthur a few seconds ago, and he vanished.

"Why should that concern me?" Nick asked.

"With due respect, Fury," Jemma pointed out, "He could be where Fitz and I were before you came and rescued us! We need to…"

"Fury!" One of the Nick's loyal men flying the ship told him, "We have an unauthorized plane taking off…and it appears…"

"What, Agent?!" Fury demanded.

"It appears your good tux is missing, sir."

Fury raced out with Simmons following close behind. Soon, they reached the hangar where they saw one of the two smaller planes had left.

"Arthur…" Fury sighed.

Jemma gave a small smile before Fury turned to her.

"You had a hand in this, didn't you?" He asked.

"Sir," Jemma responded, "Arthur just wants to save his team. After Fitz's…accident, I couldn't let him watch as his friends were murdered and…"

"Relax." Fury said, in a calm yet stern voice, "I'm not upset. In fact, I wanted this to happen."

Simmons looked at him surprised.

"Sir?" She asked.

"When Arthur Williams joined S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury explained, "He joined with the right set of skills but save one. The most important aspect to any agent: knowing that the organization worked as a team and thus agents should learn to trust others and help the world against those who would bring harm to it. I realized giving him a new team under these circumstances would help and by giving him just the right incentive, Arthur Williams could become the next best S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. With some help of course."

"Katie…" Jemma realized.

Fury nodded.

"I admit I was apprehensive about Coulson picking up your teammate Skye, but after seeing her grow with Agent Coulson's help and how she taught him so much also, I figured it could work for Arthur also."

Jemma nodded, feeling a little bit better about how things at the moment.

"So do you think Arthur can do it?" She asked.

"It's a tough battle." Fury admitted, "But if there's one important lesson I've learned, wars are not won by just soldiers, it's won by good men. And that's what it looks like Arthur has become by finally throwing the book away."

"So what now?" Simmons asked.

"Now I quickly drop you and Fitz off at your new base and then go help Coulson." Fury said.

….

_**Later, on a lone road en-route to Washington, DC…**_

Glenn Talbot smiled, as he called his wife to let her know he'd be coming home late for dinner. He had just recovered a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. gear and was beginning to move it to the Pentagon. Finishing his message, he sat back in his seat and began the ride back to Washington. Rumor had it that he was going to soon be made to brigadier-general for his work in acquiring the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. bases.

As he thought to himself what that would entitle, he was suddenly caught off-guard when an explosion went off from out of nowhere, causing the trucks and cars transporting the S.H.I.E.L.D. gear to turn to the side tightly. Another explosion went off and hit the truck in front of them, flipping it over. Then another explosion flipped the two cars leading forward as the truck flipping out of control managed to flip the rest of the cars following over, including the one Glenn was in.

He passed out for a few seconds, and then groaned in pain as he felt something attached to his hand. He attempted to move it, but found he was stuck. Handcuffed in his own car. Looking up, he was surprised to see that one agent, Arthur Williams. He was moving some stuff from one of the nearby trucks containing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Gear they recovered, which wasn't surprising given S.H.I.E.L.D.'s recent history.

What surprised him, though, was Arthur's clothing choice.

Arthur now wore a white tuxedo jacket and dress shirt with a black bowtie, and apparently, he was wearing black oxfords as well. He looked like he had stepped out of an old 1960's Spy thriller story.

"Williams…" Talbot groaned.

"Oh, good." Arthur said, quickly shutting the door, "You're awake."

Talbot tried to lunge at him but soon found that he couldn't as his hand was now cuffed to the door.

"Everybody else has been tied up at the moment." Arthur said, indicating to the man driving who was now tied with ropes.

"You have some nerve coming here and attacking us…"

"Oh, no." Arthur said, sarcastically, "I didn't mean to attack you. Only disable you."

"Is there a difference?" Talbot asked.

"When one secret organization is one that worships something like the Nazi's and takes it to a whole new degree, and the other is one who tries to save the world despite people like you pissing on us, then yeah. There's a big difference."

He walked away.

"I've called the authorities to get you out." He said, "How they do is none of my business. I just stopped you to collect what's rightfully ours."

Glenn tried to turn his head as he heard the sound of engines turning on, but was unable to see anything else as the sounds of engines took off.

…

**So there we have it, ladies and gentlemen! One chapter left! Now there are many questions I'm sure you have;**

**-Can Arthur and Jessica rescue their team and stop Igraine's plans?**

**-What other plans does Igraine have and what else does she know?**

**-Will her scheme reach a global tragedy?**

**Stay tuned to this fanfic. I'll try to have the last chapter up as soon as I can. But I hope you enjoyed this one and the fanfic in general. Special thanks go out to the OC writers who submitted their characters for this story and gave their input when needed. I promise I will try to give each of your characters a chance to shine in the last chapter. Hope you all enjoy! As always, reviews are appreciated, just no flames! Oh, and I own NOTHING but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so please don't sue!**


	15. The Final Battle

**Well, here we are, everyone. The final chapter. This is the last fight between The Spec-Ops Team and HYDRA. Two forces enter, one leaves. Winner takes all. There is just one question though, can't we all just get...say it with me now...beyond Thunderdome? BOOM! Anyways, In case you haven't noticed, this chapter will be paying homage to many of my favoriate action movies of both the past and present. Expect blood to flow, swears to be thrown, and an all-out action sequence with many great character moments and one-liners. Let me thank my OC Writers for submitting their characters. You guys all rock, and expect a sequel very soon (I have the outline figured out already!) Hope you all enjoy! As always I own NOTHING but my OC Characters****! This is for fan-purposes ONLY so PLEASE don't sue! With that said, enjoy!**

_**HYDRA Island, Somewhere off the Galapagos Islands Inside a Secret Mountain Base…**_

Ms. Williams watched as her hand-selected people began filling in the control room. Most of the important people who joined her had their own private areas, but she was just getting the really nervous people just so they'd feel safer here. The main control room was situated above the lobby area where the people who had decided to join them here were still meeting. There were lights, TVs, a bar, and even some little hovering tables to add for a variety in the place.

She sighed as Tyler watched from the side with his back pressed against the wall and his arms folded.

"You all right, ma'am?" He asked.

"No." She admitted, "I'm pissed off at my son still, Tyler. I was really looking forward to sharing this moment with him, but he had to ruin everything. I named one of my satellites after him, Tyler. What the hell happened to him?"

"His team did." Tyler explained, "The unforeseen equation. Maybe Fury was onto something when he hand-picked the members."

"Well he can't do anything now." Ms. Williams said, frowning at the crowd bellow, "What's wrong with everyone? Why aren't they a bit livelier?"

"Probably something to do with the thousands of people who are going to die soon." Boateng said.

Ms. Williams sighed and motioned for her microphone. Tyler handed it to her, and she tapped it, getting the crowd's attention.

"Hello?" She asked, "Ladies and Gentlemen, first off, let me thank you for coming. Second, I need you to take into account how important today is. Today…we launch the beginning of a new world. You and a few others will be remembered alongside me, as the men and women who saved this world from destroying itself."

She nodded, seeing as how she was winning some people there.

"Let me put this another way." She suggested, "When people talk about the day God didn't like what he created, he washed it all away in 40 days and 40 nights. Let me ask you this; is God evil?"

"No…" A few people said.

"Was the planet evil?" She asked.

"No." A few more voices said.

"How about the flood and natural disasters that came about as a result?" She questioned.

"No." The crowd said, more happily.

"There we go." She encouraged, "Now let's all toast to the next age. THE AGE OF HYDRA!"

"HAIL HYDRA!" The crowd cheered, applauding.

"Thank you." She called, "I will see all of you very soon!"

She went back to check and make sure the ones being held here who disagreed with her were all tightly secured for the culmination of her plan, unaware of an old thinning white haired man with glasses wearing a fine suit entering the room with a woman with white hair tied into a bun entering the room together.

….

_**Meanwhile, In the Holding Cells…**_

Faye sat within her own cell, unsure for the first time in her life what to do. With all the craziness happening, she felt like she could use some advice right now.

She should've asked Arthur then to go back to Jessica. Maybe they could've stopped Tyler and forgiven Jessica in the process.

Jessica.

Faye now regretted everything she had said to her. There was no word on where Jessica was being held, but if she had to guess, she was either being brought in right now, or perhaps she was already lying dead somewhere in a pool of her own blood.

_Jess…_ Faye thought, _I'm sorry…_

….

Bruce and Sabrina were sharing a cell together, but neither could come up with anything clever to get themselves out.

"Maybe if we tried to pick the lock…" Bruce thought, "No…we don't have anything that could fit…"

He turned and saw Sabrina sitting in the corner looking outside at the window which revealed the rest of the jungle surroundings to them.

"It's going to be over soon." She sighed, "No matter what, HYDRA already said they're going to wipe us of memories and brainwash us into serving them."

Bruce saw the tears swelling up in her eyes, as she looked at him sadly.

"It probably means I'm going to forget about you." She said, "It'll be like we never met."

"Don't say that." Bruce urged, "We'll find a way. Somehow."

"But how?" Sabrina questioned.

"Because we still have each other." Bruce answered.

Feeling there wouldn't be another chance at this, he kissed Sabrina. She was surprised but returned the kiss as if this would be the last night either of them would be alive.

…

Katie sat in a corner of her cell, with her head buried deep into her arms which were clutching her knees. Arthur couldn't be dead. He was so perfect that she didn't want to believe it. Her world was spinning and she didn't know anything anymore. His crazy psycho mom was about to unleash a world catastrophe and she and her teammates were trapped with no way out, and no means of backup.

Suddenly, an explosion was heard outside, and the door opened to reveal a face Katie thought she'd never see again.

"Virginia!" Katie breathed, excitedly, as her former classmate in training closed the door behind her. She was wearing an army uniform and gear, along with a backpack tied around her back.

"Katie!" She said relieved, "Still getting into trouble I see."

"Arthur's dead…" Katie said.

"Which is why we have to move." Virginia explained, "I've contacted the authorities and everything will be dealt with. We have about 30 Minutes to get the hell out before the place blows up, but I figured we could do a tradition."

As Virginia reached into her bag, Katie became aware of a scar on Virginia's arm.

"Whenever an agent dies." She explained, pulling out a beer bottle and two shot glasses, "There is usually a toast to him."

"So how'd you get past those things?" Katie asked, pointing behind her.

Virginia looked back to see the doors bolted shut.

"It's a long story." She said, before turning back to Katie, "But let's toast to Arthur."

"To Arthur." Katie said, downing her drink in one gulp, before looking back at Virginia.

"You know…" She said, "This base is so secure that I would've expected more guards to start coming at me. In other words; how stupid do you think I am?"

"Very good, Katie." Virginia replied, "Perhaps I will make you my own protégé after all."

She showed Katie a watch.

"You know what this is?" She asked.

Katie shrugged.

"Of course." She replied, "Arthur told me about this one. You click it, I go down. I thought that beer was about as flat as your performance."

Virginia gave her a smug smile. Katie looked at her seriously.

"Arthur's Mom got to you…somehow." She said.

"When she explained it to me and my family," Virginia admitted, "It all made sense."

"How?" Katie demanded, "How does killing billions of people make sense?!"

"Why wouldn't it?" Virginia asked, "We're supposed to be saving the world, but each time we do, everyone finds a way to keep screwing it over again, and bringing us back to the brink of annihilation by either wars or by the planet itself. Trust me, Katie, we're fighting a losing battle here. Arthur's Mom understands the fact that a sacrifice must be made. A culling is the only way to ensure that reasonable people stay on this planet."

"You mean the people who Artie's Mom chose to live and not let die." Katie corrected, sarcastically.

"I might've poisoned you," Virginia stated, "But I didn't come here to fight, Katie. I came here to offer you one last chance in joining HYDRA willingly."

Katie looked at her confused.

"I know someone." Virginia stated, "There's a friend of my family that I can get in contact with. Her name's Raina. You actually punched her out once before. But I'm willing to forgive that because she knows the things S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA don't know. That includes the location of your birth parents."

Katie's eyes widened.

"In Arthur's memory." Virginia stated, "If you are willing to join us on our terms, I will personally have her take you to meet your true family. What do you say?"

Katie thought. It was honestly tempting. All her life, searching for her family, and now being given the chance to learn who she really was. But then she thought of everyone else out there. Everyone else was going to die, and she'd let that happen willingly. No. She couldn't allow that. She would never again walk over another person just to be better than them. Arthur taught her that.

Katie looked at Virginia defiantly.

"I already have a family." She stated, "And I'd rather be with Arthur. Thanks."

Virginia nodded.

"So be it." She replied, clicking her watch.

She waited and counted down the minutes till the poison would start destroying Katie from the inside.

5…4…3…2…1…

Then nothing happened.

Katie looked at her stomach and shrugged at Virginia nonchalantly.

Before Virginia could ask what happened, she felt a searing pain in her neck. The feeling went down her throat and began working its way into her stomach.

"Wha-?!" She tried to ask, "What the faaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh-!"

She slumped over, collapsing on the ground as she began vomiting blood. Katie managed to grab the glasses out of her hand before she fell as Virginia looked at her confused.

"The funny things about us street girls." Katie grinned, "Is that we're light-fingered. S.H.I.E.L.D. taught me a lot of things, but that, I learned on my own. All I did was just switch the glasses while you weren't looking."

Virginia looked at her with a scowl.

"You damn…" She chocked, "Dirty…little…bitch…"

And with that, she collapsed on the ground dead.

…

_**Meanwhile, The Loading Bay…**_

The Entrance to the loading bay was currently busy. All the invited guests were coming in and there were security checks being done to make sure everybody was who they said they were.

As the radar readers looked over the incoming planes, they suddenly became aware of an incoming plane with an unidentified signal being played.

One of the technicians tuned into the plane's frequency and spoke into a mic.

"Unidentified Aircraft." He said, "You are entering into a restricted area. Please translate codes."

There was a pause before a response was heard.

"Yessir." A deep voice told him, "This is Franklin Esora, requesting permission to land."

The man read the code, and nodded.

"Copy that." He said, feeding the code in, "You are clear to land."

Suddenly, there was a burst of static, and the lights suddenly flickered.

…

_**Meanwhile, In the Main Control Room…**_

The lights flickered on and off, attracting some people in the area. Arthur's mother noticed and grabbed the mic.

"Nothing to worry about, everyone!" She assured, "We're still fine! We will be proceeding as followed. Nothing to worry about."

She quickly looked at her computer screen and frowned. The vital signals of all guests were the only security system running and the doors were stuck open.

Her eyes suddenly widened as she figured out what it meant.

She quickly patched through to the control room and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ATTENTION LOADING BAY STAFF!" She screamed, "CLOSE THE DOORS NOW!"

…

_**Meanwhile, The Loading Bay…**_

The Staff didn't hear her and soon the static sound formed into a rock and roll song.

'_Guess who just got back today_

_Them wild-eyed boys that had been away_

_Haven't changed that much to say_

_But man, I still think them cats are crazy'_

The Music was so loud that it only increased their pain in their ears. They looked up to see the plane was approaching quicker, but they had no time as it smashed into the loading bay and exploded, taking a number of staff out with the blast.

…

_**Meanwhile, The Control Room…**_

Dammit! Arthur's Mom swore to herself, before looking back at her audience an assuring expression on her face with the mic.

"Nothing to worry there, either, folks." She assured, "We'll have this problem taken care of soon."

She quickly switched over to her security.

"ALL HYDRA AGENTS!" She called, "WE HAVE AN INTRUDER THAT'S ABOUT TO INFILTRATE THE HYDRA BASE! YOU ARE REQUIRED AT THE LOADING BAY NOW!

…

_**Soon…**_

The Entrance was soon loaded with security who trained their guns at the entrance. There was smoke filling the room and it created a thick screen which blocked out the entrance/exit.

They remained silent until they saw a peculiar sight.

It was an outline of a figure riding a horse into the smoke. Suddenly, the figure passed through the smoke and the HYDRA Agents looked astonished. The figure was indeed riding a white horse, but his appearance is what surprised everyone.

There was Arthur Williams. Dressed in the fanciest tuxedo money could buy, along with a pair of dark sunglasses. Over his tux, he wore a bulletproof vest and had all manners of deadly weapons on him.

Beads of sweat formed on everyone's face as they felt like they had stepped into something nasty. Everyone was afraid to make a move, as Arthur dismounted his horse. He turned and patted his horse as it left. It was then everyone noticed he was chewing gum which he spat out. Everyone stared tensely as a smile formed on Arthur's lips.

"Morning." He said, with hint of a growl.

With that, everyone readied their weapons but faster than they could shoot, Arthur pulled up a pair of twin handguns, and fired at the closest people. He hit one through the eye, and the other through the brain. Two shots went off, but Arthur did a summersault and dodged them, firing off another three shots and hitting three other agents. One in the chest and two more in the knees who collapsed, screaming in pain.

Arthur landed behind a pair of metal crates and briefly poked his head up to see some fire near a fuel canister. Bullets fired imminently so he stayed low and waited for an opportunity. Once he heard the gunfire stop, he got up and spun around, aiming at the fuel. Arthur fired and the shot hit the canister, setting off an explosion which sent everyone flying to the ground.

Arthur chuckled and began to make his way into the base…

And then was met with a bullet in the head himself. He looked surprised as he slumped over.

…

_**Meanwhile, The Control Room…**_

Arthur's mom sighed. It was over. Her son was dead and there was nothing left to worry about.

Or so she thought.

"Uh…Ma'am?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, Tyler?" She asked.

"We…we missed."

Arthur's Mom made a scowl.

"What do you mean 'we missed'?" She asked.

"We were reading vitals of everyone who came in. Everyone got scanned." He said.

"Yes." She agreed, "Your point is?"

"Your son didn't have any vitals whatsoever." Tyler pointed out.

Arthur's mother quickly looked at her table computer and saw he was right.

"Then where the hell is he?!" She asked.

Her eyes darted around the room and she noticed where the old man and women had sat down by when she had given her speech were gone and in their place was a man in a tux passed out.

"STOP THOSE TWO!" She screamed.

A group of three security staff blocked the two off before they could leave.

"Pardon me," One of the security apologized, "But we need to check your credentials again."

The man nodded.

"Very well." He replied.

He reached into his pocket and before anyone knew what was happening, the man slapped an electrical patch onto the guy's neck, shocking him. The Man then gave a karate kick to the jaw, sending him down. The other two raised their guns, but the woman pulled one of her own and shot both of them in the hands.

The two turned and grabbed their faces as everyone looked shocked. There was a blue light that seemed to peel off their faces as it became replaced by the appearance of Arthur wearing the old man's clothes and Jessica Smith wearing the female's dress.

"Nuff Said!" Arthur quipped as he took off with Jessica not too far behind.

Arthur's mother noticed Jessica had a laptop in her bag and knew where they were heading.

…

_**Soon…**_

Arthur came upon the entrance to Katie's Cell. Quickly punching in the code they had hacked in the main control room, they opened the door and found Katie sitting by a bed with the body of Virginia lying nearby. They noticed a punctured hole in her arm and the fact that Katie was looking at a small chip in her hands. Then she saw Arthur and her eyes widened.

"ARTHUR!" She cried, happily running up and giving him a big hug, "YOU'RE ALL RIGHT!"

"Yep." Arthur smiled.

"But what about everyone else?!" She asked, "How are we going to get out of her alive?!"

Suddenly, the door opened and an exact replica of Arthur entered. He was filled with bullet holes and had a large duffel bag around his shoulder while the rest of his body was armed to the teeth with weapons.

"Righteous Father." The Arthur Duplicate declared in a robotic voice with a thumbs up, "I have returned."

"Thank you, LMD." Arthur said, taking his bag and weapons.

He looked at it sadly.

"You know what you have to do now." He assured.

"I do." The Robot replied.

"I promise." Arthur swore, "I will name my first-born Life Model Decoy.'"

"Really?"

"Probably not, but I'll think of something close." Arthur assured.

"Very well." The Robot said, stepping out and locking the door outside. Arthur fiddled with the bag's interiors before pulling out some stick-on explosives much to Katie's amazement. Arthur then took one of the large guns and began tapping on one side. Soon, he heard a faint tap in response.

Morse Code.

Soon, Arthur set a timer and then looked at Katie.

"Agent Shelia?" He asked with a sly grin, "Would you do the honors?"

"Gladly, Agent Williams. Katie said pressing the 'go' button as the three agents backed away. Soon, a small explosion rocked the room, and they looked to see Bruce and Sabrina quickly entering through a hole in the wall, looking quite astonished.

"ARTHUR!" Bruce declared, "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"Wait!" Sabrina warned, "How do we know you're really you?"

"Because I've come here to do four things." Arthur said, "Save you guys, save the world, stop mom, and have a nice beer once this is all over. In that order."

The two nodded.

"Okay." Bruce shrugged.

"Virginia was working for them, by the way." Katie said, as Arthur placed an explosive on the other wall after giving the Morse Code signal and getting a response, "This is what I found in her arm."

Bruce looked at it closely and nodded as they moved away from the other wall.

"I get it now." He said, "This is what they've been using to detonate all those people. I recognize the hardware a bit better. It seems that Igraine's electrical plan has a safe plan for those who she wants to survive. It looks like in addition to detonating people from the inside out, she found a way to counter the effects with a charge that counteracts the electrical wave in the phones."

"The one that makes everyone Hulk Out?" Kaite asked.

"Right." Bruce noted, "So the problem is we can only wonder who else has this and how far Artie's Mom's plan goes?"

"And how does this help us?" Arthur asked.

Bruce looked up at all of them.

"It doesn't." He noted.

"Perfect." Jessica said, sarcastically.

The second explosion went off and Faye entered, looking amazed.

"JESSICA! ARTHUR!" She declared.

She ran up and hugged Jessica.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized, "I was wrong to treat you the way I did."

"I forgive you." Jessica assured, "It's all in the past now."

Jessica coughed and stood upright.

"Okay, then." She said, "Then onto more pressing matters."

"Correct." Arthur said, "Now I know we've all had our ups and downs on this little adventure and I know you aren't happy with the way I've done some things. I admit some of these choices I've made were wrong and if I could redo them, I would. But now, we're standing here against a maniac who has a plan ready to decimate the human population by…"

He quickly checked his watch.

"4 Minutes from now." He noted, "But I have a plan and if we work, we can stop Mom and take this whole operation down. You all with me?"

"Right!" They all nodded.

"Okay," Arthur said, "Here's what we're going to do now. Faye, you and Jessica will get everyone else out of here. That way in case we fail, we'll have at least gotten everyone out of here and proven we will still be willing to assist in getting our ways of order back."

He handed them a laptop.

"That thing contains the codes and doors of everyone inside." He said, tossing them a couple of guns from the bag as well, "Oh, and take these."

He turned to Bruce and Sabrina and tossed them some guns as well.

"You two are going to make your way to the computer data bank systems to see if there's any way of shutting down Mom's plans remotely." He explained, "Anything you can find will be helpful. I trust you know how to work this."

He tossed Bruce a little USB drive, which he recognized.

"I do." He nodded.

"Good." Arthur replied, turning to his protégé.

"And us?" Katie asked.

Arthur grinned.

"We are going to kick ass and chew bubblegum." Arthur replied, "And unfortunately I'm all out of gum. But we are going to take down Mom's satellite that's towards the top of this mountain."

A big smile came over Katie's face.

"All right." She said, gesturing for Arthur's gun, "Is that for me then?"

"What?!" Arthur asked, surprised, "No! Katie…this is my gun."

Katie's head fell but Arthur placed his hand on her shoulder, holding the bag in front of her. It took Katie a second to realize what was going on.

"All this is yours." Arthur said, "You didn't think I'd leave without spoiling you with all of this, did you?"

Katie looked inside and saw something large which made her eyes widen.

"No way!" She asked, "Is that…is that for me?!"

"Sure is." Arthur smiled, "Everything inside the bag belongs to you, Katie. Have fun taking down the satellite with it, but remember; I got your back.

"Sweet!" Katie said, pulling out an umbrella gun from the bag.

"How's that for action?" Arthur asked, gripping his gun tightly.

"Yeah!" Katie agreed, as they bumped their weapons together, "Boooooyeeeeeee!"

Arthur turned to the door.

"Okay, Agents." He said, "Let's go kick Hydra's ass and give them the biggest beat down since 1942!"

….

Outside the cell, the HYDRA Agents all had their guns at the ready. Suddenly, the door cranked open and they all opened fire…

Only to have their bullets bounce off of an umbrella of all things. They all looked confused as Katie simply switched to the air force feature and fired, sending all the guards slamming into a nearby wall.

"Okay, people!" Arthur declared, "Let's move!"

Everyone nodded and went their separate ways.

….

_**Soon, the bottom floor…**_

Two HYDRA Agents stood guard outside the information terminal when Bruce and Sabrina showed up.

One of the agents raised his gun, but the other motioned for him to put it away.

"Don't worry." The taller one restraining his friend laughed, "Tyler told me about these two. They're just a couple of science geeks. They can't hurt us…"

Before either could react, both Bruce and Sabrina took out their own guns and fired a shot each into the Agents kneecaps, sending them to the ground in pain.

"AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" The taller HYDRA Agent screamed in pain, as Bruce put a little device on the door lock, "SHIT!"

"Oh, quit whining." Sabrina said, sarcastically, "We made sure you'd live so be grateful for that."

Suddenly, Bruce's device beeped and the door opened. The two quickly entered and began looking into the computer just as Arthur had instructed.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Faye and Jessica opened the doors to the cells and all the prisoners came out. There were people of all kinds; movie stars, journalists, political figures. Jessica even recognized the Prince of Wales's son who had supposedly been missing for the last few weeks. She could understand why now.

"All right, everyone!" Faye called, as she tossed some of them weapons, "We're here to free you. We're going to do our best to stop this doomsday catastrophe and get you all to safety, but you're gonna need to defend yourselves."

Jessica handed a gun to the prince. He was a man with short spikey hair and a rather large nose.

"You know how to operate this thing?" She asked.

"My friend." The man said, with a grin, "I've spent my whole life around bodyguards, I know how to operate this thing."

….

_**The Control Room…**_

"Shit!" Tyler called, watching the prisoners escaping while outnumbering and shooting down the HYDRA agents as they went, "The prisoners are escaping!"

"It doesn't matter." Arthur's mother replied seeing the image of her sun running towards the entrance, "They'll all soon see the futility of their actions. Besides, it's almost time."

She got up and took out her microphone, addressing everyone.

"ALL RIGHT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" She called, "IT'S ALMOST TIME! COUNTDOWN TO H-DAY, WELCOMING IN THE AGE OF HYDRA!"

…

_**Washington DC…**_

The GOP took their seats for their 'emergency meeting.' They had got word that H-Day was coming and they wanted to make their case about trusting HYDRA to the government. And what better way to do that then with a meeting in the Capitol Building involving The President, and the latest democratic Presidential candidate. She sat near the podium as a middle-aged woman with short blonde hair.

Soon, the government would be rebuilt. And the loyal HYDRA Followers would be in control.

…

_**HYDRA Base Control Room…**_

"HERE WE GO!" Igraine declared, "TEN…"

…

_**The Loading Bay…**_

Arthur rushed in, guns ablazing as he took down as many HYDRA Agents as he could. All the while, he kept screaming at the top of his lungs as if he were giving a dramatic war cry. Soon, he saw he was out of bullets and more agents were approaching. It was then that they heard the sound of clunking and a voice groning. There was also the sound of something like a jet heard, getting oh-so-closer to them.

Then they saw it.

There was Katie, riding a jetpack which appeared to have stinger missiles, and gatling guns, which she instantly aimed at the shocked HYDRA Agents. She also had the bag of weapons worn around her neck and being held between her arms as they gripped the controls in place.

Before the enemy HYDRA Agents could move, Katie fired a barrage of bullets which all hit them, taking them all down. Fortunately, these were still the icer kind of bullets so they wouldn't be killed, but they would be knocked out for a while.

…

_**The HYDRA Base Hallway…**_

Bruce and Sabrina worked hurriedly on the computer. There was only five more seconds left before the clock was finished.

…

_**The Hangar Bay…**_

Wasting no time, Katie flew the jetpack up towards the top of the base when she saw the satellite dish emerging from a hidden rock formation. She quickly switched to the stinger missile mode and fired away. The rocket soared at the satellite. Katie prayed it would work in time.

….

_**The Control Room…**_

"ONE!" Igraine declared, placing her hand on the table computer. Instantly, a readout of the satellites orbiting the planet popped up and began showing the chain link.

….

_**Outside…**_

The missile hit the satellite and it exploded into a fiery wreck.

….

_**The Control Room…**_

The whole room shook as the signal was suddenly interrupted. A large red error text began bleeping on there.

Igraine looked at this development horrified.

"It's not working!" She declared, "IT'S NOT WORKING! WHAT THE HELL?!"

….

_**Outside the base…**_

Katie grinned as she descended from above and landed near Arthur. They both looked back to see the happy familiar sight of the Spec-Ops Plane driving up, Jessica in the cockpit seat.

She opened the window and smiled at them.

"Need a ride?" She asked, "What took you guys anyways?"

"Katie had to quickly go over the controls." Arthur explained, "Speaking of which, A for effort, Agent Sheila."

"Why thank you, Agent Williams." Katie replied.

….

_**The Control Room…**_

"The little bitch just took down our satellite!" Tyler swore, "We'll need at least five hours to repair!"

"It doesn't matter." Igraine said, pulling out a phone, and dialing a number, "I've had a contact in case of an emergency like this."

She waited before a voice answered.

"Gil!" She replied, "I'm so sorry to ask you of this. My satellite plan had a little problem. I need to know if I can download the specs to your space station to my table computer and use the station to send the signal from there. Is that all right?"

She paused and smiled.

"Thank you." She said, "So how long should this take?"

….

_**The Hangar Bay…**_

Arthur and Katie were about to run around and board from the cargo doors, when they heard Bruce over the communications.

"Um…Arthur?" He asked, "We have another problem."

"What?" Arthur asked.

"Your mom put a bio security system on here. There's something else in here I can't decode, but there's no way of stopping this signal if your mom lays a hand on that console."

There was a pause.

"DAMMIT!" Bruce swore.

"What?!" Arthur asked, concerned.

"Arthur!" He declared, "Your mom's trying to use a nearby space station to send the signal. It's already at 10% and still growing. You need to get back there and stop them!"

"Seriously?" Katie asked, "A chance for a one-on-one against your Mom and that traitor Tyler? Count me in!"

Arthur nodded and quickly ran back to the front of the plane. Katie began grabbing as many gadgets and guns as she could from her bag. She noticed something else she hadn't seen before and her eyes widened as she picked it up and activated the small gadget looking with amazement.

"Sorry, Jess." He apologized, "We have to stop mom. We'll be back."

With that, he took off into the base. It was then that Jessica noticed guards following from behind them.

"Arthur!" She called out, "You got some company. It's like your mom wants to give you a gift!"

….

_**Inside the base…**_

Arthur and Katie rushed down the carved-out interiors, racing to get to Igraine's control room. Arthur turned a corner and gripped a nearby pipe seeing as how he noticed a shadow ahead of them. Flipping around to the other side, Arthur struck both feet out and kicked two HYDRA Agents down. He then turned his watch speaking into it.

"Bruce, Sabrina." He pointed out, "Looks like Mom's not screwing around here. How much longer have we got?"

Suddenly, a barrage of bullets struck him as a number of HYDRA Agents moved out from hiding. But much to their shock, the bullets went straight through him. Arthur suddenly began laughing and pointing at them. When they didn't expect it, he pulled out a gun and fired repeatedly.

Except the bullets hit all of his enemies instead. Another Arthur walked out, and turned his watch, the secret hologram disappearing.

He tossed it to Katie and she went on her way to disable more of the HYDRA Thugs. Using the same feature, Katie projected a hologram of herself, and pretended to walk forward. Two more goons fell for it again, and she whipped out an umbrella gun that Arthur had shown her before. Firing off a few rounds, the agents went down and she tossed it back to Arthur.

Unfortunately, as she turned around, she realized she was now facing two more HYDRA Agents who had their guns armed at her.

"Quick question;" Katie pointed out, "How do you guys know that I'm the real Katie Sheila and not some holographic projection?"

The two HYDRA Members realized this and looked at each other confused.

"Answer;" Katie responded, "It's really me!"

Before they could even process what they had heard, Katie spun around, sticking her right foot out, and she knocked the HYDRA gun on the right into the other one, sending the both of them to the floor. Katie then used the grip end of her umbrella around one of their necks, and spun him around until he hit a wall. The last guy tried to hit Katie while she was distracted, but without even looking, Katie laid the top end of the umbrella on her shoulder so it was facing the HYDRA Agent dead in the face, and fired, taking him down as well.

Meanwhile, Arthur fired off a number of bullets, but it seemed that true to HYDRA's Slogan, for every HYDRA Agent he took down another two would take their place imminently afterwards.

"Crap!" Arthur swore, grabbing Katie's arm, "Come on, we need a quick breather!"

But before he could move her, a stray bullet hit the handle, dropping all the weapons and gadgets on the floor. Then a shower of bullets fired in their direction making it impossible for them to retrieve the bag.

So the two ran down a corridor again back to where they had regrouped the team, as another squad of HYDRA Agents appeared outside as well.

Arthur and Katie quickly ducked behind cover, trying to come up with an idea.

"Dammit!" Arthur swore, calling up Bruce and Sabrina.

"Guys!" He yelled, "We're cornered. We're completely screwed."

…

_**Meanwhile…**_

Bruce and Sabrina were about to say something when a large explosion seemed to rock the room, almost sending the two agents to the ground. They looked at their monitors and discovered there were a number of HYDRA Agents waiting outside with a mini-tank laucher.

BOOM!

Another explosion rocked the door.

Bruce and Sabrina looked at each other regrettably as they replied.

"So are we," Bruce said, with a defeated sigh, "So are we."

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Katie couldn't believe how much they lost. It looked like they were actually going to win, but now they were completely screwed over. It was like Arthur had told her when they met, this wasn't an action film but it was good to believe it was at least for a while.

She took out her phone and called up Jessica.

"Jessica?" She asked, "Faye? I need you to do me a favor. Call up Abby and Tabatha. If they have Hammer Phones, tell them to lock themselves in separate rooms, and then get rid of the keys. I'm sorry that we had to blow it right now, but…"

She stopped ignoring Jessica's questioning.

"Wait a second." Katie said, changing her contact to Bruce and Sabrina's communications.

"Bruce? Sabrina?" She asked, "You remember how we said those implants I got were useless? Think we can put them to good use?"

She waited as there was a sudden gasp from both of the agents, indicating that they got the idea.

"Of course!" Bruce said, "Right away, Jessica. Sending the honors to you for your plan. I just hope it works."

"As do I." Jess replied.

"What are you doing?!" Arthur asked.

"Hacking into your Mom's network." She explained, tapping away.

"But we can't shut her systems down!" Arthur yelled.

"It's not about shutting it down." Katie smiled, "It's about turning something on."

Arthur's eyes widened as her plan suddenly dawned on him. And for the first time he suddenly felt so proud of her.

"Katie Shelia!" He declared, "You are a genius!"

….

_**The HYDRA Control Room…**_

"Ma'am!" Tyler Boateng declared, "Something's gone screwy with the network."

Ms. Williams looked over the computer and her eyes widened with fear.

"No!" She declared, "No what is she doing?!"

"What's happening?!"

"That little piece of trash my son trained!" She screamed, "She's hacking into all our failsafe measures!"

"Can't you stop it?!"

"I can't! His team's overridden everything!"

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Katie…" Arthur said as the men got closer.

"Almost there…" Bruce assured.

"Any day now…"

Finally, Katie received a new pop-up on her phone. It read:

'_WOULD YOU LIKE TO DETONATE ALL FAILSAFES?_

_Y/N'_

Katie gave an exhasturbated sigh.

"Yes." She said sarcastically.

She pressed the button labeled 'yes.'

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Ms. Williams watched in horror as the computer showed all failsafe's were now activated.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Just as the men were all ready to fire a final rocket into the door that the two agents were hiding behind, they all felt something in their necks. There was a burning sensation in there. It got hotter and hotter and then they all felt a pressurized feeling in their stomachs. Their chests began to swell up past the size of being cartoonishly muscular. Then, their eyes became blood-shot-red and finally…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

One by one, each HYDRA agents chest exploded, into a ball of fire, blood, and spilled guts. A trail of smoke was left behind in their lower torsos, and they all fell to the ground.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

In the hallway, Arthur and Katie watched as each HYDRA agent's bodies exploded, sending guts flying everywhere. Arthur made sure to keep Katie back as the guts went soaring past them so as to not get any on their suits.

Soon, all the HYDRA Agents in there were dead too.

….

_**Hammer Worldwide Systems…**_

"Mom…" Sasha Hammer exclaimed as the two CEO's tried to forcibly hold back their lunch, "I don't feel so good…"

Justine tried to hold things back as well, but the two couldn't as the swelled up and blew literal chunks all over their office.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

….

_**The Capitol Building, Washington DC…**_

"And that is why," Congressman Samuel T Underwood declared, "We need to stop the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. by introduction censorship and government viewership of all communications across all networks, and…"

He stopped and suddenly began feeling a sickly sensation in his chest.

Some of the few democrats still in congress began to mock Underwood asking if he had given up. Some republicans demanded he say something before he ruined the good name they had worked so hard to build. What most people noticed was the rest of the people there who helped control congress seemed to be clutching their chests in pain.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, the bodies of the majority of the GOP swelled up and exploded. This resulted in the explosion sending tattered clothes, blood, eyes, blood, flesh, and other body part all around the floor of the office. Then Underwood's face paled as his body expanded as well. His right eyeball inflated and then finally…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The lower part that remained of Samuel T Underwood stood upright for a few seconds before falling to the ground. Everyone was in panic now. The majority of the GOP had been taken out by an unseen force, and people were scrambling for answers as to who did it. General Glenn Talbot would arrive later and would spend the next few hours letting off a lot of steam once he saw what became of congress.

….

All around the world, people were exploding. North Korea, Iraq, Canada, Australia, South America…

Wherever there was a HYDRA agent, they all exploded into a bloody gush much to the shock of everybody who witnessed it.

….

_**The HYDRA Control Room…**_

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

All the members that had been brought to the base here all exploded as well.

Arthur's mother could only stare dumbfounded as the entire list of people she recruited to her cause finally dropped to zero.

Her shock suddenly changed to a growing rage. Arthur had become a lost cause. She had secretly hoped he would join her, especially after he saw how secreative S.H.I.E.L.D. had been. But that idea was now out of the question. Arthur had crushed her hopes and dreams just as the people in charge years before had done with her husband, Arthur's own father! He had condemned millions of people to die just as the government had condemned her husband to die.

That was the last straw.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Arthur stepped over the blood helping Katie over the last body.

"That….. was…amazing, Katie!" Arthur said, scooping her into a bear-hug, "Well done!"

"You mean it?!" Katie asked.

"Katie, that was excellent and well-timed thinking and handiwork. You just turned an impossible situation into a winnable battle. When this is over, we'll find a way to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D., and I'll be more than happy to call you my partner."

Katie's eyes widened as she hugged Arthur back.

"You're not such a bad agent yourself." She laughed, "Oh, did you have a wicked pun ready?"

Arthur shrugged embarrassingly.

"Not really." He admitted.

"Shame."

"Actually," Arthur pointed out, "There was a part you missed earlier when I flew a remote-controlled life-size plane into the base to announce my arrival, and I ended up playing 'The Boys are Back in Town' at about 5000 times the normal volume people listen to at a concert."

"You're off the chain!" Kati laughed, as Arthur shared a small chuckle with her.

"ARTHUR!" The voice of Arthur's mother yelled through the intercoms, "YOU'VE CROSSED THE LINE YOUNG MAN!"

"Oh, hi kettle!" Arthur said, sarcastically, "Name's pot. Have we met?"

"Don't you DARE try to justify what you and your friends just did." Arthur's mom yelled, as the two continued to run down the corridor towards the main control room, "You just killed over a million people. They were going help us, Arthur! They were going to help replace the old world with smarter minds! Better minds. We could have had a utopia, Arthur. And you killed all of them and celebrated over their corpses."

….

_**The Main Control Room…**_

"Well guess what, son?" Ms. Williams declared, "You haven't changed anything! This whole system is about to go online! Anybody who's not in a safe area is going to die as well now! Remember that, Arthur. Every single person who dies today is on you. The blood of many innocent lives will be on your team. I am ashamed to call you my son!"

Suddenly, there was a series of shots fired which began to break through the glass in the control room.

Boateng spotted this quickly, and tackled Arthur's mother, sending her to the ground.

"That's a shame." Arthur smirked, as he and Katie walked in both carrying machine guns from the dead HYDRA agents, "Because I loathe the fact that you're my Mom, and you're a person who likes to monologue so much."

With that, they continued firing.

"I'll handle with the bird." Tyler told Arthur's mother.

"I'll handle the operation here." Ms. Williams said, showing him a hidden gun underneath her jacket, "If Arthur tries to interfere, I'll make sure to put a bullet in his head this time."

Boateng nodded and got up, when he heard that the two were running low on ammo. However, he was stopped when Arthur's mother pulled him back down.

"You watch yourself out there, Tyler." She told him.

"And you watch yourself, Contessa." Tyler told her.

Down below, Arthur and Katie reloaded their guns.

"Okay," Arthur stated, "Now I'm going to need a boost…"

Suddenly, the glass broke as Tyler Boateng jumped through, taking out two twin knives.

"Five seconds ago…" Arthur stated.

"Then let's hop to it," Katie said, "You deal with your Mom and I'll take Limey here."

She ran up towards the window as the two dodged Boateng's knives. Arthur put one foot on Katie's back and then leapt up into the control room where his Mother was. She took out a handgun but Arthur simply kicked it out of her hand and it flew out the window.

Down below, Tyler had touched the ground just as Katie had gotten up. He made a mad dash for the knives, but Katie slid forward, and kicked the knives away. Tyler pulled a handgun out, but Katie kicked it away from his hand with a spinning jump kick. Boateng went for a punch, but Katie held up both her hand defensively.

"Woah, woah, woah!" She pleaded, as Tyler stopped, "Tyler, just hear me out…is this what you really, really want?"

Tyler thought and nodded his head.

"Yes." He told her, almost half-surprised.

Katie nodded her head and sighed.

"Suit yourself." She replied, jumping up and head-butting him, breaking his nose as a result.

He staggered back as Katie took a defensive position.

"All right then." He said, "Let's see what the S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit who had to have a final test without any proper training learned."

"Oh, I've learned enough, old man." Katie replied, "In fact, I'm about to go all Anakin Skywalker on your ass. Watch the mistress and learn."

With that, the two charged at each other.

Meanwhile, above, Arthur circled around the table eying his mother.

"You can't tell me you see how insane this is!" Contessa pleaded to her son, "You might not believe in HYDRA, but surely you can't deny that this is lunacy!"

"I can't deny a lot of things, Mom." Arthur said, "I might not be a man with the vision you hoped to make me see. But my team taught me an important lesson, to get caught up in this insanity so I could stop doing things the same way and mix them up a bit. Now I really know what the main difference between right and wrong is. And I know that I'm on the right side because I'm going to stop you."

"Then fight me." Contessa demanded.

"Gladly." Arthur said, forming strong fists in his hands.

With that, he leapt across the table attempting to punch his mother, but she spun around and kicked him in the face, sending him back into the wall.

"You can't win, Arthur." His mother declared, "I brought you into this world, and now it's time for me to take you out. Maybe I'll even have a son who actually appreciates what I do here today."

"Not in my future." Arthur said, repeating the words of his idol.

He raced towards her to throw another punch, striking her right in the face.

Down below, Katie was still fighting Boateng. She spun around and tried to kick him in the face, but he used blocked her foot, and then flipped her over, sending Katie to the ground.

"You give up, luv?" Tyler demanded.

Katie groaned and did a hand-stand flip backwards dodging the knife that Boateng slammed into the spot where she once was, leaving an impact in there.

"Come get some." Katie said, motioning him to fight.

Back in the upper booth, Arthur had his mother in a chokehold when suddenly she kneed him in the gut, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. Contessa finally saw the countdown was completed and pressed the activation button.

Arthur saw this and quickly called up Bruce and Sabrina.

"GUYS!" He yelled, "SHE'S ACTIVATED THE MACHINE! ANY TIME NOW TO SHUT IT DOWN WOULD BE APPRECIATED!"

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Back with Bruce and Sabrina, they were still hacking their way in.

"Just a few more minutes!" Bruce said, "It's almost done."

Suddenly, the information screen came up.

"Okay…" Bruce said, quickly scanning as quick as he could through all of the files, "Let's try and get this quickly…"

….

But already around the world, people were already at each other's throats. Things were going to hell quickly with some major fatalities already being reported within seconds.

….

_**Boston…**_

Abby and Tabatha had already locked themselves in separate rooms when the electrical pulse went off. They stood still for a few minutes before banging at the door, trying to get through to each other and kill them.

….

_**The Main Control Room, Africa…**_

"Katie!" Arthur yelled, "Shit just got real! You gotta take care of Benedict Arnold here! Five minutes ago!"

"Kill her, Boateng!" Contessa screamed.

Boateng tried to thrust a sharp-edged knife at her, but Katie leaned back, dodging the object. Putting her hands on the ground, she pushed herself upwards, hitting Boateng in the chin with her feet, and catapulting over him.

Boateng growled as he got out some more sharp-edged knives and began throwing them around the room. Katie dodged them, but it was going to wear her out quickly. Taking notice of a nearby broken pipe, Katie picked it up and began swatting the knives away as best she could.

She quickly finished up, but saw the pipe was all busted.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Bruce and Sabrina were going through the files when Bruce's eyes widened.

"Found it!" He said, pulling the file up.

He then frowned when he saw the info.

"Oh no." He said, "Arthur? Are you there?"

….

_**The Control Room…**_

Arthur was kicked backwards by his mother so hard the door leading outside broke, and Arthur found himself lying on the ground of a catwalk, stationed above various vats of chemicals he wouldn't want to be swimming in.

"Arthur?" He heard Bruce's voice ask, "Are you there?"

"I am!" Arthur said, grabbing a piece of broken wood and fighting his mother with it.

"Arthur…" Bruce said, "I'm so sorry. Your mother linked the machine to her brainwaves. Its mind linked directly to her…"

"What does it mean?!" Arthur asked, swatting his mother with the wood, getting splinters impaled into her face.

"Arthur…" Bruce said, "In order to shut down the machine…you have to kill your mother."

Arthur's eyes widened. He knew his mother was evil, but he still had to bring her in for that was the way the law worked.

As he stopped, his mother slugged him hard in the gut and then delivered a knee in the same area.

Down back in the lower part of the control room, Katie was circling Boateng, as both waited for the other to make the first move.

Then Boateng yelled out as he dashed at Katie, who simply ducked and rolled to the right. However, Boateng jumped off of the nearby table, landing behind her, and ready to deliver a duplex to her. Fortunately, Katie swung her leg around, knocking him on his back, but Tyler threw his personal knife at her, which she dodged just barely, allowing him to kick her in the chest, knocking her back.

She got back up and the two then charged at each other, leaping up into the air. Boateng took his personal knife, thrusting it forward, but this time Katie was prepared. She began to turn her suit's button just as Arthur had shown her. However, Tyler noticed this and smirked bringing the knife forward a little quicker, ready to take Katie out.

What he hadn't expected was a small, yet powerful laser beam to appear rather than the stinger which would have usually been featured within that little secret compartment within the suit. Tyler's eyes quickly widened with horror as the laser melted straight through the knife, making it completely worthless. Before he could even have time to contemplate his most cherissed item, the beam finished cutting through there and went straight into his hand, slicing both flesh and bone open and sending Tyler's body into a complete array of pain. He howled screaming as he fell to the ground, having failed to kill Katie. He looked at her with horror and shock that this small-time street girl rookie had managed to hurt him both mentally and physically this bad.

"Awww." Katie said, with sarcasam, "Did wittle Tyler get a boo-boo? Here, let me help you with that?"

Moving with more agility than Tyler thought possible, Katie ran up and positioned the laser so that it sliced his left arm off completely. Tyler was now beyond hurt and now felt like his entire body was on fire. In some weird way, he could actually feel the hand metally, but physically it felt like there was nothing there whatsoever. Like his entire left hand had just suddenly vanished as though he had never been born with one.

"Well…" Katie said to hersef, "I told you I'd go Anakin Skywalker on you. Only I managed to do it better than Hayden Christensen. You know, I feel as though I forgot something…"

She thought quickly.

"Oh yeah!" She remembered, snapping her fingers.

With that, she slugged him out and quickly used the laser to burn the wounds a little so they would have a somewhat more easier time of growing flesh back on over time.

She then ran up to a broken steel girder still attached to the control room window and took hold of it, using it to jump up and enter the main controls.

"KATIE!" Bruce said, "Arthur's getting his ass kicked and he can't kill his mom! You need to kill her to end this nightmare. As long as her brain's still active on killing everyone, the machines will just keep allowing everyone to kill each other!"

"Got it." Katie said taking out Tyler's personal knife she had managed to snatch in the ensuing fight.

….

_**Boston…**_

SMASH!

Abby had managed to get through the door and found a nearby pair of scissors lying on a table. Picking them up, she quickly ran over to the door and began striking it repeatedly. Unbeknownst to her, Tabatha had broken the mirror of the bathroom inside and was also striking the door to get to Abby.

…...

_**Back in the Main Control Room…**_

Contessa repeatedly punched her son in the face.

"You can't win, son!" She yelled, "You refuse to hit me because I'm the one that made you who you are. You see, Arthur, you can't kill my ideas. But I can kill my ideas whenever I feel like it!"

She took out a gun and pointed it at Arthur's head.

"Time to stay dead this time." She declared.

SHRIIIINK!

Contessa's eyes widened as she looked down to see one of Tyler's knives sticking out through her chest, soaked in her own blood. She dropped her gun and began gasping.

Katie kicked Contessa in the back, causing her to stagger forward, and Arthur managed to use enough of his energy to kick his mother in the legs, sending her over the edge, and beginning to plummet towards the chemical tank directly below her.

However, Arthur managed to catch her by the foot and held her there.

"Mom…" Arthur said, weakly, "I know you think you're doing this for the good of mankind, but you're not. And you're probably thinking right now that I won't drop you because I'm your son, but look at me Mom."

Arthur's Mom did so and for the first time, she saw her son had changed, and he was something she did not expect.

"Do I honestly look like I give a rat's ass about not saving everybody on the planet from killing each other? Or to put it another way…"

He gave a small smirk at her.

"You about to get burned."

With that, he dropped her leg. Contessa screamed as she plummeted to the ground and then fell in the chemical tank. With that, her body disintegrated into nothingness.

…

Around the world, everybody stopped beating each other. On a fortunate scale, no people had died during the attack worldwide. They had not been exposed to the gas long enough for them to kill everyone, and thus the population of the world would remain the same. Though the world would grieve for what they had done, they were saved by a force that they had the wrong idea about. All in all, things could have ended up much worst.

….

_**Boston…**_

Abby and Tabatha were about to smash their weapons into the door and break through when they dropped them and suddenly returned to normal.

"What the-?!" Tabatha asked, "Abby! Let me out!"

"The key's with you!" Abby said, sliding it underneath after five seconds of searching.

Tabatha emerged and looked at her friend.

"What the hell just happened?!" She asked.

"Don't know." Tabatha answered honestly.

….

_**The HYDRA Base…**_

"Have a nice acid trip." Katie said, to the vat.

"Good job, Katie." Arthur said, weakly, closing his eyes, "Now if you'll excuse me…I'm gonna…take…a nap…"

Suddenly, the ground shook as Katie looked up confused.

"Uh…" Katie asked, "What the hell is that?!"

"It's the base self-destructing!" Bruce said, "It seems Arthur's Mom was also the trigger for a self-destruct in case of her death. We need to leave! NOW!"

"Go then!" Katie yelled, "I'll catch up!"

"Katie…" Sabrina began.

"GO!" She ordered, "I'll meet you outside!"

She kneeled down next to Arthur.

"Arthur, come on!" She yelled, slapping his face, "Come on! The base is exploding! We need to move!"

She got no response, and began shaking him.

"COME ON!" She yelled, "On your feet, soldier!"

She sighed and put Arthur's arm over her neck, and picked him up from behind, now thankful that her daily workouts now allowed her to carry him.

"Dammit!" She swore, "What's the point of doing all those workouts if you can't move your fricking legs, Arthur?"

With that, she ran out, clutching both of his arms tightly, so she didn't lose him. She then noticed Tyler's body and remembered they'd still need a POW to show they had a reason for doing what they did with the implants. She then saw one of the nearby floating tables and an idea quickly formed within her head as she grinned from ear-to-ear.

….

_**The Entrance to the base…**_

Bruce and Sabrina were relieved when they were met with Faye and Jessica outside, with the plane still intact. They quickly all embraced each other as they looked back at the gaping entrance into the mountain.

"What happened to Arthur and Katie?!" Faye asked.

"Arthur was losing a fight to his Mom!" Sabrina explained, "We don't know what happened with him. Katie said she's meet us out here."

"What?!" Jessica asked, as the mountain structure began to collapse in on itself.

"She's not gonna make it." Faye said, worryingly.

….

_**Meanwhile…**_

Katie continued to move faster than she had ever run before. Her legs were feeling like they weren't there, but she ignored the tiredness and pushed forward. She could just literally see the light at the end of the tunnel right ahead of them. She was riding one of the tables as a skateboard (a hover board, she would insist, since this was another part of her list of things to do before dying,) leaving Arthur still attached to her back, while she used the broken strap to attach Tyler's remaining arm to one of Katie's two perfectly-working arms. He was failing about like a rag doll having passed out from the shock, but she didn't care about any of that.

Picking up the speed, she could feel the vibrations on the ground from the boulders coming in. They were getting really close, but Katie was now in the home stretch.

Screaming, she jumped out of there, landing face-first as Arthur remained on her back. Tyler landed next to her, face-first on the ground. She looked behind her and saw to her relief that she had made it out okay.

She then head applause and saw the rest of the team running up.

They stopped when they saw Arthur still unconscious.

Katie quickly turned him around and saw there were some serious bruises along his neck.

"Dammit, Arthur." She swore, "This is something I'm NEVER doing again."

With that, she began preforming CPR on him. She breathed into his mouth and then pressed her hands against his chest. She repeated the process five times before Arthur finally coughed loudly.

"Oh thank god!" She said, "You're all right."

She embraced him for a hug and then Arthur pulled away, and looked at her sternly.

"Don't. Kiss. Me. Again." He said, "I don't want to become like Ward. Otherwise, congratulations, Agent Sheila. You just helped save the world."

He then turned to the others.

"Everyone else okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," Jessica replied, "Started to send them away after we saw that you and Katie killed your Mom."

She looked a bit regrettably.

"Sorry about that." She pointed out.

Arthur sighed.

"Perhaps it's for the best." He shrugged, "Whatever happened to Mom all those years ago…she's gone now. For good this time. At least I can have closure on that."

He looked back at her more seriously.

"I trust that they won't speak of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s involvement?" Arthur asked, "The former prisoners of that base, I mean?"

"What do you mean, Arthur?" Faye asked, sarcastically, "They said that they were being held by a madwoman who didn't do her calculations correctly and ended up blowing everybody up and letting them get set free."

Arthur grinned.

"Thanks. To all of you." He said, "You can go or stay, but I intend to try and continue doing good for the world. Even if S.H.I.E.L.D. is essentially no more."

"No, Arthur." Jessica smiled, "You changed and proved yourself to us. We're more than happy to follow your lead."

"So what now?" Faye asked.

Arthur sighed.

"That's tricky," He said, "Providence is already compromised. We'll need to find more food and shelter. This base won't be good enough, so we'll have to look for something…"

"Uh…" Bruce said, pointing upwards, "Guys? Is it me or is that plane lowering itself?"

Everyone looked and saw there was indeed a plane lowering itself right next to the Spec Ops Plane.

This new plane was actually The Bus as they suddenly recognized it, as it touched down.

"Get ready." Arthur said, as they readied themselves.

The doors to The Bus opened and soon out stepped Melinda May and Skye.

"You're okay." Skye said, relieved.

"You look like crap." May noted.

The team inspected their now-ruined suits and nodded.

"What happened with you?" Arthur asked.

"We stopped Garett and now Coulson's the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." Skye responded.

The group's eyes widened.

"Seriously?!" Arthur asked, "Coulson?!"

"Yes." May replied with a nod, "He actually sent us to pick you up and assist if we could, once he heard about where Arthur snuck off to."

"Guess we weren't needed after all." Skye pointed out, "Anyways, what happened with you?"

Arthur looked at himself and his team.

"We took care of my Mom's plans to destroy the world." He said, "She's dead, and I've come out a better person than I was when I first lead this team it appears."

"You didn't take any of that serum Coulson and I have in our veins, did you?" Skye asked.

"Nope." Arthur said.

"Well," Skye said, "Sorry about your loss. But Director Coulson wants you back at base. Better get yourself situated and then follow us."

"Right." Arthur said, getting up, "And then after we meet can we take a nap for about four months?"

….

_**Later, The Playground…**_

Finally, after following the bus for hours, The Spec Ops plane touched down right next to it in front of the new base.

Arthur and his team exited from the plane to be met by Coulson.

"Director." Arthur nodded.

"Agent." Coulson replied, "You look like you've seen better days."

"Could say the same about you." Arthur joked, "You caused quite the scare both for S.H.I.E.L.D. and for the rest of the world, from what I understand."

"I know." Arthur said, "But as a good friend once taught me…"

He quickly winked at Katie before turning back to Coulson.

"Nobody in life is perfect." Arthur said, "In fact, those who think they are will sometimes be driven to create their own ideas of perfect that tears down everything we hold dear to attain a goal such as that. Those people had it coming. But I'm ready to receive whatever time I need to be spent."

"Your fine Agent Williams." Coulson assured, "You had no other way out based on what I read. All I was going to say is that you seemed to really piss off Glenn Talbot."

"Figures." Arthur muttered with a sarcastic laugh in his voice.

"Well done taking down that last HYDRA base." Coulson said, shaking Arthur's hand, "You really managed to pull your team together all things considered."

"We actually all helped each other, Sir." Arthur smiled, "Now, what is it you wanted to discuss with me?"

"Well," Coulson replied, "As the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I realized we're going to need more recruits. With Agent Ward incarcerated, and our agents spread so thin, I'd like to offer you an official high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. Position, and assign you to Head of the Training Facilities for the new S.H.I.E.L.D."

Arthur looked at him stunned.

"Let's be realistic," Coulson said, holding his hand out for Arthur to shake, "I think that you fit the qualifications and you always did want to help others."

He had been given everything he wanted before his team. Everything he had worked so hard to achieve was now literally his. And yet…strangely enough, Arthur didn't feel like taking it.

He shook his head as Coulson gave a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Director." Arthur smiled, "It's everything I worked so hard to achieve. But I can't take it. I kinda like it where I am now."

"In that case then," Coulson replied, pulling a wallet out of his jacket and handing it to Arthur, "I have a feeling you'll be needing this."

Arthur looked at it confused and opened it. To his shock, there was a new S.H.I.E.L.D. ID with his info on there, except there was no level given and it read 'Consultant' as his title.

"What's this?" Arthur asked.

"Your new position." Coulson replied, "Seeing as how me and my team need to tackle the bigger pictures, we need you to pick up where I left off. Not as a Level 7 Agent who happens to be the director's one good eye, but as an agent who can take care of the rest of the world problems for the director. Think you're up to the task?"

"You want me to be your best eye?" Arthur asked, amazed.

"Correct." Phil nodded, "Now, do you accept? Or would you rather leave your team behind and become a civilian again?"

Arthur smiled.

"Is that a question I need to even answer?" He questioned.

"Then welcome back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Arthur Williams." The Director answered, shaking Arthur's hand.

"Good to be back, Director Coulson." Arthur replied, "I take it my team stays?"

"They may." Phil nodded.

"Then I'd like to promote Katie Sheila to my second-in-command."

Katie looked at him amazed.

"Oh, and one other thing…" Arthur said reaching into his pockets and handing her his car keys.

"I'm entrusting you with this now." Arthur said, placing the keys into Katie's palm, "Take good care of the car and respect it or I'll use my newfound powers to inflict new methods of pain on you."

"Congratulations, Agent Katie Sheila." Coulson said, "You've inherited Barney."

Katie looked at Arthur confused, as his face froze.

"Barney?" Katie repeated, questionably.

"He didn't tell you?" Coulson said, "The one thing he held onto from his old life was naming his car after his dog."

"You had a dog?!" Katie laughed.

"A long time ago." Arthur said, chuckling, before looking back at Coulson. "What now, boss?"

"Let me bring you inside so you can get acquainted with everyone here." He said, "Oh, and we'll obviously need more candidates to join up. So you need to think about recruiting."

"Oh, and one last thing." Arthur said, as Katie rushed back within the Spec-Ops plane, "We got a little present. Think of it as my congratulations gift for becoming S.H.I.E.L.D. Director."

Coulson watched as Katie brought out a one-armed Tyler Boateng, who had a cuff on his remaining arm which was attached to his pants loop.

"So what do we do with him?" Arthur asked.

"I think we have a nice room for him here." Coulson replied, "He'll have good company in the form of Agent Ward."

….

_**A Few Weeks Later, Boston…**_

Tabatha and Abby continued to clean the broken orphanage whilst Sister Rachel was on the phone arguing about how much she'd have to pay for to restore the place.

They heard the doors open and close, not bothering to see who it was, until they heard a familiar voice speak.

"I'm sorry." The female voice apologized, "Is it too late for me to adopt?"

It was Katie. She looked completely different. Her hair was straightened out, and neatly combed, and much to the shock of the two girls, she was wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. The rest of what she was wearing something quite different from the last time Abby and Tabatha had seen her.

Katie now had a white buttoned down long sleeve shirt on, worn over a black and grey double-breasted pinstripe tuxedo and a black tie worn around her neck. Her pants were also black and grey pinstripe, and on her feet she wore a pair of black Oxford shoes tied up in probably the neatest tie that the girls would ever see in their lives. To top it all off, Katie had a wooden-handled umbrella with gold ring on there.

Katie looked like a proper gentlewoman rather than the raggedy and rebellious Katie that Abby and Tabatha were familiar with.

Before they could ask them what was going on, Sister Rachel marched up to her imminently confronting their friend.

"OH!" Sister Rachel said, "You've got a lot of nerve showing up back here after that crap you pulled with the adoptive family I got for you! Disappearing off the face of the world was impressive especially when everyone almost beat each other to death around the world, but now you expect to come back here for forgiveness?!"

"No." Katie said calmly, looking at her friends, "I've come for them."

Tabatha and Abby's eyes widened with amazement.

"I've been given a job, you guys." She said proudly, "And my boss wanted me to recruit some people to help, and I figured I'd do for you what he did for me. If you're in, you'll have to go through a lot of training to earn his trust, but I can vouch for you two and assure you he won't be anything worse than Sister Rachel here…"

Sister Rachel's mouth hung open, and the three old friends smiled.

"Interested?" She asked.

"Of course, Katie!" Abby said, "Just as long as we get one of those good suits!"

"Now wait just a minute!" Sister Rachel yelled, "You're not leaving!"

She turned to Katie.

"Now you get out of here before I call the police on you!" She demanded.

"Sister Rachel." Katie sighed, not taking the situation seriously, "I don't think you're understanding this. I'm not the same little girl who used to be scared anymore. Now my boss asked kindly that I bring them to him no matter what, and although I'd like to strike you, I'd rather not, since I've had a busy day. If that's quite alright."

Sister Rachel looked at Katie dumbfounded.

"You don't know who you're talking to." She warned.

"Do I?" Katie grinned, "Or is it you?"

"Leave now."

Katie looked at her friends and sighed.

"Alright." She said, disappointed, "But just know that I gave you a chance."

Sister Rachel threw a punch at Katie, but she stepped back, and hit her arm with her umbrella, catching everyone by Surprise.

Using this opportunity, Katie punched Sister Rachel in the face, sending her to the ground. Katie then saw a nearby vase and secured it with the hook of her umbrella before flinging it behind her. The vase his Sister Rachel in the face and with that, she was unconscious.

"Goodbye, Sister Rachel." Katie said, looking at her friends, "Now let's get the hell out of here before she wakes up."

"Katie…" Tabatha asked, "Where…where did you learn to do that."

"That'd be your boss who we'll be seeing soon." Katie said, moving them out of the orphanage, "Now let's go. We'll take Barney."

"Barney?!" The two asked confused.

They went outside and saw Katie walk up to the 2013 Black Honda Accord they had been in last time. Except now it was all repaired and looked brand new.

"Barney's my car." Katie smiled.

….

_**Nepal, Later…**_

In a small mountain village a woman was preforming for a bunch of tourists and people who had come all the way up to see her. She looked like she was around the age of 57 and had lived here for years after being raised in America and traveling the world, learning all sorts of secrets. Her hair was greying blonde, but she still managed to retain some of her youth despite the lines growing on her face. Her clothing was a mish-mash of bright colors for the traditional Nepal Woman but without the hooded part. The woman smiled as she worked her charm dance using clams to call out the pet snake. Everyone was worried as this was a very large python that they knew was poisonous, but the woman smiled as she began working the clams and clicking them in an almost mores-code-like pattern as the python took notice of her and looked at her, awaiting instructions. The visitors clapped and left their change, some taking quick photos before they were all gone.

After they had left, the woman began tending to her python for the afternoon. She was then surprised when she heard a new voice call out to her.

"You know, I'd make a joke about pythons, but I'm afraid that the music in America has ruined them enough as it is."

The woman looked up to see a man standing before her. He had greying black hair though his signs of age were not as apparent as the woman's, and he also had beard stubble along his face. He was wearing a suit grey suit and tie with a white buttoned-down shirt underneath.

"Has it happened?" She asked, "Did you find them?"

The man grinned.

"I found one of them." He declared, handing over a photo to her, "Your eldest died unfortunately. But she died protecting your youngest daughter. She's alive. Your youngest daughter's alive."

The woman snatched the photo from him and almost got tears looking at it. She had not seen her daughter since she was three-years-old, and now she was all-grown up. Her daughter now had long brown hair and bright blue eyes, and was very beautiful.

The man put his hand on her shoulder.

"She has his hair, you know."

"And my eyes…" The woman said, wiping her eyes and then looking at him, "So what's up, Doc? What's got you so glum-looking? Don't pretend I don't know there's something else that's bothering you."

He sighed.

"It appears our children have been taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D."

"But…" The woman said, confused, "I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed. Didn't Captain America oust them as HYDRA or something?"

"So I thought until a source came by and told me otherwise." The man said, tossing her another photo. This time of a man who was tall and well-fit with cropped red hair.

"And who the hell is this?!" She asked.

"Arthur Williams." He replied with disgust, "The new right-hand man of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new Director trying to rebuild the organization itself. Turns out my daughters working for them. Your daughter is working for them too."

The woman looked at the picture and crumpled it up into a ball throwing it to the ground in her Python's food. The Phython imminently devoured the picture soon afterwards.

"It's alright, though." He assured, "We're going to kill those responsible and then we're bringing our children home. So I hope this whole spiritual lesson thing has paid off."

"It has." The woman said, rising up, "I packed my bags for my return home ever since I got here."

"Good." The man replied, "Because if we're going to get them back, we'll have to do some questionable things."

"Since when has anything we've done been questionable?!" The woman smirked.

"True." He said, "I take it…"

"The snake comes along." She told him, "Besides, if I left him, he'd die of loneliness."

With that, she went to her room and prepared to finish what she started all those years ago.

Get her revenge and be with at least one of her daughters once more.

….

_**Later, The Playground…**_

Arthur couldn't remember the last time he slept this good. Hell, he couldn't even remember when he slept at all. He was dreaming about what action and adventure his team would face next when they got what they needed. He enjoyed hanging out here in the Playground where he could sit down when time permitted him to get his thoughts.

There were some problems. Mainly they had to find ways to get more money and resources and that Fitz apparently suffered some brain damage thanks to Ward. Speaking of which, Ward was being held downstairs as a Prisoner of War, so at least Arthur got to make fun of him for failing. Still, he'd make sure to try and help everyone now, and Fitz would be on his list when he got the chance. Fitz would need it especially after Coulson sent Simmons out on a classified mission a few weeks ago.

Just then, Arthur heard something that woke him up. Sitting up in bed, he found Coulson dressed in some long pajama pants and a dark blue t-shirt shuffling away from the room. He almost had a zombie-like look in his eyes as if he were in deep trance.

"Director Coulson?" Arthur asked.

There was no response. Arthur sat up and took a spare bathrobe with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the right side of the chest area and followed Phil. Eventually, he saw Phil at a large wall, carving strange symbols into there.

"Coulson?" Arthur asked worriedly, "Coulson… what's going on?!"

Coulson didn't respond. Instead, he dropped the knife he was carving with and staggered backwards.

"Coulson!" Arthur yelled.

Coulson gave a somewhat startled jump, but stopped when he saw Arthur standing there.

"Agent Williams." Phil exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you doing this." Arthur said, looking over Phil's handiwork, "Jessica's been doing the same thing. What is this stuff?"

"We don't know." A new voice responded.

He turned and saw Melinda May walking over to them also dressed in a robe made for her size.

"He's been doing this since we saved the world." She said, grimly, "We think this has something to do with whatever was injected into Phil, Skye, and Jessica."

Arthur looked at Phil horrified.

"How long has this been happening?" Arthur questioned.

"Right now?" Phil asked, "On a regular basis. I'm trying to make it go away, but I can't stop myself."

"So what do we do?" Arthur asked.

"Well," Phil said, "You'll help May monitor me and make sure I don't go crazy like Garett did. The same goes for Jessica, but I'd recommend being a bit more secretive with her, since there's no way she can be mentally prepared for this long part. Hopefully by working together, you two can help find a cure."

"And if we can't?" Arthur asked.

They all looked at the carvings grimly.

"Then we prepare for the worst." Phil replied.

The End…For Now…

….

**And BOOOOOOM! (Sorry I had to do that last one.) Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The Spec-Ops Team Might be over, but later this summer, The Team will return in a sequel! I will post another chapter here to let you know when I have the other one online. So did you like the little previews of what's to come? Let me know your thoughts on the overall story in the comments. Also, fun fact, Arthur's disguise is actually supposed to be as Stan Lee, hence the "Nuff Said" line. And for those who are s***ing themselves at the sight of the GOP Exploding. It's just a fanfic, guys. Granted they are a bunch of hot air (*badum-dum!*), I obviously would never do that to them. But I will say if they are pushing their presidential campaigns based on enforcing oversights of unlawful ideals on our security by banning things like Facebook and fanfiction, I can't say that everyone else might take that well, but what do I know? I'm just a writer whose fought just as long as anyone to keep freedom of speech alive online. Anyways, big shout out one last time to the writers who contributed to this story! SweetPeaKalya (Jessica Smith,) NN010 (Bruce Gordon,) AOSISMYLIFE (Faye Anne Carter,) AwesomeGirl (Sabrina Washionton,) and scrawlx1012 (Tyler Boateng). I promised I'd give each of your characters one great moment in this story and I hope I followed through with that promise. See you all later for the next story! Until then let me know what you thought in the reviews. As always, I own NOTHING but my OC Characters! This is for FAN-Purposes ONLY, so PLEASE don't sue! Thanks again!**


	16. Behind The Scenes

Like the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presely, most of my fondest childhood memories were spent reading comics. I often imagined myself as a hero saving the girl, defeating the bad guy, and being crowned a hero. All in a day's work.

Welcome to a BTS Feature of The Spec-Ops Team. This is actually the first time I've really done a look back at my story to explain what I've did since my very first fanfic in late 2008, Freddy VS Jason VS Ash VS Sylar!

Now, how did THIS story that you have read come about? Well, being a Marvel fan that I am (can't say the same for most of the comics recently, though. Looking at you, Dan Slott. Your stories are garbage and I promise you this, I am coming for you. I will dethrone you as God of the Spider-Man Stories. I will be Liam Neeson with the power of Chuck Norris upon your dethroning. You will beg me for mercy which you will get none of, as I roundhouse kick you yesterday,) I LOVE the Movies and LOVE AoS despite some minor flaws. As such, my love for action movies that has grown in recent years inspired me to do my own OC story. The first task was coming up with what to do it on.

One of my favorite comics recently-turned-favorite film is Kingsman: The Secret Service (which most of this fic was also inspired by.) I loved the idea of taking a street-kid and making them tough and decided to try it out myself. Arthur Williams mainly came inspired by the character of Nicholas Angel from Hot Fuzz. In the process of writing this, I knew Arthur would be a hard-ass from the start, and would rise to the challenge by the end by learning to care for his team, and learning to be more light-hearted.

Katie was ironically based off of many of my thoughts on what spy movies were as a kid. She is basically the character that myself and the audience can relate to, and understand her pain when something doesn't go her way. We've all had that feeling in some way. Maybe you failed a test that was very important, or maybe you've broken up with a lover and wanted to do something very stupid. That is who Katie is. At the end of the day, she inspires people to be themselves, but at the same time, try to better themselves.

Now onto the other characters who made it into this story and what I thought of them.

Jessica Smith. Ah, Dear SweetPeaKalya's fine creation. This author was so nervous at first, but I playfully teased her with letting her know I accepted her character. Jessica served as the proper connection to the larger AoS Story at first, and then became part of that bigger universe Nick Fury talked about. I'll actually be honest, though, I had originally planned for Arthur to be the one who was almost killed and then injected with the same drug that saved Coulson's life. But I wanted to spice things up a bit and so I chose Jess to be the one to now be writing those strange carvings on anything. Why? Well, because again; it's the risk one would take by coming into a job as important as Jessica's and serves as a reminder that any slip-up could have negative consequences on a character. I'm sure you're wondering if Jess will be fine. You'll have to see the sequel story to find out!

Faye-Anne Carter. From AOSISMYLIFE. When I received the submission and accepted to put her in the story, I knew that I would have Faye be teased for her last name. I made it very clear like as AOSISMYLIFE described that Faye is in no mood for games. I have plans that I will be sending to AOSISMYLIFE to describe why Faye is the way she is, so keep an eye out for it. ;)

Next is our two science lovers; Awesomegirl's Sabrina Washionton, and NN010's Bruce Gordon. Originally, NN010 intended to introduce another character, but I believe he added the character of Bruce later, and thus this other character will be seen soon in the sequel story. I never fully intended to make Bruce and Sabrina lovers, but after the heartbreak of Fitz and Simmons relationship falling apart this season, I figured we all needed something to keep us occupied. I slowly planted the seeds when I had the chapter when Sabrina was forced to confront her past, and let it grow from there. Now I have two official shipping for the two now; Bruina (from me,) and Sabruce from AwesomeGirl! I had actually intended for this story to end with Bruce and Sabrina sneaking away when Arthur called them and when Arthur hacks into Bruce's two-way glasses left near a bed he and Sabrina are laying down in, he gets a shocked surprise (we don't see what he's looking at,) and he simply turns the thing off and passes by Katie who asks what's going on. His reply? "I'll tell you when you're older." I didn't add it because I thought we'd be going past that line that some people know to draw in cases like this. Will their challenges they face in the future undo their relationship? Check the sequel story!

And finally, our traitor. Tyler Boateng. Created by scrawlx1012. I admit, I was originally going to have the bad guy be the MCU Version of minor villain Boomerang (in fact, some other Marvel Characters made appearances in here. See if you can spot em all.) But scrawlx1012 came in with a request and I decided to take a look at it. Sure enough, I saw a good potential villain worthy of a final fight with Katie which would be much more fun to write. I promised scrawlx1012 that he would indeed play a bigger part as the right hand woman to Igraine, and indeed, he did. This is also why Tyler was the one to kill Victoria Hand. I know there are plenty of Ward/Skye or Ward/Kara lovers out there, but after the killing of one of my favorite Brian Michael Bendis-created characters, I can no longer trust Ward. That's just my opinion. Therefore, I had Tyler's betrayal be a sense of false hope for Victoria only to be stabbed in the throat by him before being beheaded. Then I gave him the tragic backstory that scrawlx1012 came up with, and although you understand why he does what he does, you can still hate him for the people he's murdered just to get even with Fury. The final fight scene was easily rewritten to fill Tyler in, and you can feel how much he's lost when Katie destroys the last remnant he has of his father and then literally scars him for life by slicing his arm off. Where does Tyler go from here? Check the sequel story!

What I'm getting at is that I've loved writing all these characters, and if you want to see where everyone goes from here, you should check my sequel story; The Spec-Ops Team 2. Plus, I'm open to more submissions now, and it won't just be limited to HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. this time around. Oh, no. This time, you get to pick if your character is an Inhuman, on Gonzalez's S.H.I.E.L.D. or just an independent person from the rest of the groups. How about that?

Anyways, before I wrap this up, I need to talk about the story design. As I stated, I always knew Arthur's Mom was going to be the one behind everything and I always knew Arthur and Katie would off her together. The culmination of the final chapter was foreshadowed back when Arthur took Katie to meet the team for the first time. Katie mentioned living her action movies in real life and after Arthur dismissed it as being ridiculous, he himself got caught up in that action. So in the end, they ended up playing it both their ways.

Now what does the second story have planned? Well there was that mysterious woman talking to Cal (and yes, the guy she was talking to in the final chapter was in fact Calvin Zabo, Skye's Father,) so we'll see what Katie's future is. But I should warn you, while the characters will be joined by faces old and new, there is a storm coming and it might be more than our team can handle.

So with that said, I hope you enjoyed the story and I look forward to seeing you for the sequel. As always, I own nothing but my OC's. This is for FAN-Purposes only, so PLEASE don't sue!

Regards,

BrenRome


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